Breaking: Wife found guilty of helping husband in Laurel murders

MADISON -- A Madison County jury found Carrie Jones guilty Thursday of helping her husband murder four people in Laurel three years ago.

The 12 jurors deliberated less than four hours before finding Jones guilty of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and being an accessory. She faces life in prison without parole.

Last fall, a jury in Dakota County convicted Jason Jones of four counts of first-degree murder. In 2022, Jones went to the home of 86-year-old Twiford and shot and killed him along with his wife, Janet, and their adult daughter, Dana. The same night, Jones also shot and killed a neighbor, Michele Ebeling. Jones set their homes on fire. He set himself on fire in the process, causing critical burns over much of his body.

As with her husband's trial, Carrie Jones' trial was held outside of Cedar County, where Laurel is located, in an effort to minimize pre-trial publicity of the sensational case.

Lead prosecutor Corey O’Brien told the jury that Jason Jones was merely “a puppet” carrying out the demands of his angry and paranoid wife. “She made him dance from behind the curtain,” said O’Brien.

The prosecutor made the case that Carrie Jones' anger with murder victim Gene Twiford led her to encourage her husband to kill the man. He also reminded the jury that her DNA was the most prominent found during testing of the magazine of ammunition in the pistol that killed Twiford.

On the last day of testimony, the defense tried to clear Carrie Jones with testimony from her husband. Jason Jones claimed he was solely responsible for planning the murder spree, which he intended to end in his own suicide.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Doug Stratton pointed out that the vast majority of the evidence presented in the trial confirmed that Jason Jones committed the murders. The rest of the trial, in his view, failed to make the case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Carrie Jones aided her husband with the killing of Twiford. 

Stratton did little to defend Carrie Jones against the charges of tampering with evidence or attempting to conceal Jason’s role in the murder. He said that as a wife, Jones “immediately went into protection mode.” 

“She made horrible decisions that night,” he told the jurors.  “All those horrible decisions occurred after the fact and have nothing to do with the murder of Gene Twiford.”

Carrie Jones showed little emotion as she was led from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies. There were tears from spectators who had ties to the victims.

Sentencing will be in November.