Man who murdered his wife with a bat and strangled his 4 kids sentenced to death
On Friday, April 28, a Florida man who killed his wife by beating her with a baseball bat, and then strangled the four children he had with her, was sentenced to death .
At the court hearing, Ocala County Judge Anthony Tatti formalized Michael Jones’ fate after a jury recommended the death penalty at a January sentencing trial.
The lawyer for the quintuple killer has said that he intends to appeal his sentence.
The July 2019 deaths were triggered after Jones’ wife, Casei Jones, accused him of cheating on her after she checked his phone.
Jones later told police that his wife raised a bat during a vicious fight inside their home and that he bludgeoned her to death with the weapon while angry.
The four children — two of which he shared with his wife — were asleep when the beating took place and did not wake up.
Jones told investigators he wrapped his wife’s corpse in blankets, stuffed it in a tote bag, and placed it in a closet in their home.
While in panic, he then used her cell phone to post items on her social media accounts to conceal her death.
Jones took his two stepchildren, Preston Bowers, 4, and Cameron Bowers, 8, to stay with their dad and dropped off his own children, Mercalli Jones, 2, and Alyana Jones, 11 months, at their grandmother’s home.
With summer break about to end, Jones worried the kids’ absence from school would raise suspicions.
A week before Cameron was slated to resume school, Jones pulled him out of bed as he slept and strangled him on a bedroom floor before putting his body in a suitcase.
Jones told police he choked Preston with a zip tie the next day before drowning him in a bathtub.
He also placed his body in a suitcase.
Several days later, Jones said he pulled up to a local police precinct with his two daughters and considered turning himself in for the three murders.
A week before Cameron was slated to resume school, Jones pulled him out of bed as he slept and strangled him on a bedroom floor before putting his body in a suitcase.
Jones told police he choked Preston with a zip tie the next day before drowning him in a bathtub.
He also placed his body in a suitcase.
Several days later, Jones said he pulled up to a local police precinct with his two daughters and considered turning himself in for the three murders.