Defense attorney, jurors react after former DA’s misconduct trial ends in plea
The jurors in ex-Columbus District Attorney Mark Jones’ misconduct trial were ready to convict him on most of the nine felony charges he faced, before he took a last-minute plea deal and resigned from office Monday.
“The evidence was strong,” said one juror, a 60-year-old woman who didn’t want her name published.
Another juror, Iesha James, 30, said the evidence she saw raised doubts about the credibility of the criminal justice system overall.
“It definitely doesn’t feel like the leadership in Columbus is where they need to be, professionally, after everything that I’ve seen here, not just looking at Jones, but looking at the entire process,” she said when Monday’s trial ended in a plea, a week after jury selection.
She pointed to evidence that Jones was willing to push witnesses to testify to facts they didn’t have, to gain convictions in homicide cases. In one instance, a suspect charged with involuntary manslaughter in a fatal shooting faced a sentence of one to 10 years in prison. Jones wanted the defendant charged with murder, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
“If you just look at the fact that somebody can be in jail for one to five years, versus this man going to jail for life, because you want somebody to say something that they haven’t found evidence for, it’s really one of those things where you have to put yourself in the victim’s shoes,” James said, explaining that by “victim,” she meant the suspect sentenced to life on insufficient evidence.
By the time Jones decided Monday to take a plea deal in exchange for a sentence of five years in prison with one year to serve, plus his resignation from office, the jury of seven women and five men had reached guilty verdicts on these five felonies, James said:
- Bribery by offering then-Chief Assistant District Attorney Sheneka Terry $1,000 for murder convictions.
Attempted violation of an oath of office, by trying to get Terry to accept $1,000.
Bribery by offering Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Schwartz $1,000 to announce she was ready for trial in a murder case.
Attempted violation of an oath of office, by trying to get Schwartz to accept $1,000.
Influencing witnesses by pressuring a homicide victim’s nephew to defer testifying in a hearing.
With those convictions, Jones could have faced up to 50 years in prison.
Defense attorney speaks
The prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler, declined to comment on the plea deal, but Jones’ attorney Katonga Wright said Fowler demanded Jones plead guilty to at least one count involving each witness.
In court, Fowler said that while Jones’ pilfered no one’s money, the dangers posed by his actions should not be understated, because they risked putting people in jail on charges that were not justified:
“We’re talking about people’s lives, and I am not overstating that: We’re talking about people’s lives,” he told Judge Lumsden. “And while financial injury is something that’s devastating to people’s lives, what we’re not taking away from them is their freedom.”
Under the agreement, Jones pleaded to influencing witnesses by telling a homicide detective to lie under oath in a fatal shooting, to attempting to violate Terry’s and Schwartz’ oath of office by trying to get them to accept $1,000 bonuses for murder convictions, and to violating his oath of office by not assisting the nephew of a homicide victim who complained about how his late uncle’s case was handled.
Jones’ other charges will be dismissed. As part of his plea, he is to have no contact with the district attorney’s office and no contact with the witnesses in his case.
His attorney felt he did what was best, in his predicament.
“That was a tough decision, but I think it was the right decision,” Wright said after court adjourned, adding, “I think it was the right thing for him to step up and accept responsibility for things that may not have been looked upon in a very favorable light, and he at least has a predictable result.”
Jones would not have known what penalty he faced, had deliberations continued and the judge decided his sentence on the counts for which the jury convicted him, she said.
Wright felt the outcome could have been different, had she more time to prepare for trial, she said. Jones at first represented himself, after his indictment on Sept. 7. On Oct. 12, his friend Chris Breault, a Columbus attorney who represented Jones in an earlier trial, entered the case on his behalf, but Judge Lumsden disqualified Breault in an order Oct. 25, ruling Breault had been named a witness in the case and no longer could serve as Jones’ counsel.
Breault’s testimony last week resulted in his being jailed for contempt, for disobeying Lumsden’s orders regarding inadmissible evidence and answering questions directly. He was arrested Wednesday and released on $5,000 bond the next day.
Wright was hired just days before Jones’ trial began Nov. 8, and Lumsden denied Wright’s request to postpone it. Wright had a list of 200 defense witnesses the judge had told her to pare down, and in the end, she decided not to call any, telling the court Jones did not have to prove his innocence. Jones elected not to testify in his own defense.
“Being limited on time definitely puts you at a disadvantage,” Wright said Monday. She still believed Jones committed no crime, and became a victim of his circumstances, she said: “I think the cards were definitely stacked against him. I think he definitely made some poor choices, whether they were criminal or not.”
Jones, 40, had no experience as a prosecutor when he ran for district attorney last year. He defeated incumbent Julia Slater in the June Democratic primary and faced no Republican opposition in the November general election.
He took office Jan. 4, and served 10 months before Gov. Brian Kemp suspended him on Oct. 4, acting on the recommendation of a commission that reviewed Jones’ indictment, and found the charges adversely affected the DA’s office and the public’s interest.
Sheneka Terry, who was Jones’ chief assistant, was sworn in as acting district attorney on Oct. 6, and continues in that role. But under the state constitution, Gov. Kemp now has the authority to appoint Jones’ replacement, according to the governor’s office. The Georgia Attorney General’s office said the appointee would serve out the remainder of Jones’ term, which ends in December 2024.
Staff writer Nick Wooten contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 3:06 PM.