Defending Your Life

(CBS News)  This story originally aired Oct. 15, 2005.

A Washington state wife and mother was brutally stabbed and murdered as she was preparing to take a bath in her home, while her husband was just feet away, in a nearby room.

Police immediately suspected the husband, who was tried twice on murder charges. Incredibly, those verdicts were overturned.

Then, he faced a third trial and took a gamble by defending himself.

Would his strategy work?

"48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.

Joe Ward remembers the crime scene after Lee Jones was murdered in 1988. A homicide detective for the Snohomish County sheriff's office, he was sent to investigate the killing.

"Mrs. Jones had received a lot of injuries to her body, all over her body. She had over 60 wounds. There were slashes. There were stabs," Ward remembers. "It looked like she had fought for her life in that room. And lost."

Ron Doersch also has ties to the case. He was the deputy prosecuting attorney who tried Jerry Jones Jr., Lee's husband twice before.

Jones told police he heard a noise, responded, and found his wife. As he ran down the hallway, he says, someone brushed by him and pushed him against the wall. He says as he tried to grab the knife his hand was cut.

Ward calls the story "unbelievable."

"Detective Ward begins to realize it just doesn't add up and that he has the murder suspect right in front of him," says Doersch.

The first trial ended with a guilty verdict, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1999 that Jones's lawyer had been ineffective and that the case should be retried.

48 Hours began following the Jones case after he was released, marking the beginning of an incredible legal drama.

A second trial, in 2001, also ended with a guilty verdict. Remarkably, an appeals court reversed that conviction, saying the jury didn't hear crucial evidence.

Doersch says the last ruling left him angry and embittered. "As a prosecutor, there are certain things about cases that resound in your consciousness that affect you on some emotional level. This was one of them."

Meanwhile, Jones, facing a third trial, decided to represent himself.

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[sikati85]

What a sociopath!!! I don't know what hurts me the most; the fact that he murdered his wife so viciously and blamed a 15 yr old for the crime or the fact he corrupted his children into defending him. Like one of the jury said: he talks with a soft voice and knows how to behave but he still gives you the creeps. He has an answer and explanation to every question. I don't know how anyone could possibly believe that he is innocent, let along his children. I understand they lost their mother and want their father back but look at him: HE IS A SOCIOPATH!!! A threat to society and to them more precisely. Still, I hope he confesses someday and remove the shame he has brought to the family. I see his beautiful daughters and innocent boy washing their mother's blood from their father's hands. That woman need justice!!! I am sure she's crushed to see her children defending her murderer. Love can really make you blind. I don't blame them but I hope they wake up someday. What a world we live in...

[youshouldlivesolong]

Did the police notice that he could barely move his arm that he used to stab his wife 60+ times? If yes, that would be my reason for believing him guilty. There is no mention of that. Does anyone know if they noticed that?

[alittlelamb]

Love 48 Hours I am addicted.

[wagnerwalkgirl]

I just watched this story (9-19-2010),and I must say that Jerry Jones IS GUILTY of murdering his wife,and that smug grin constantly on his face speaks volumes!I can't believe that he was released in 2008,and that his children were so trusting of this Murderer.He IS freaky looking,and I'd sleep with one eye open if anyone gets hooked up with him in the future!!
Goes to show you...You CAN get away with murder!! My thoughts and prayers are to his wife's family only, and the Mother of the Boy he tried to pin this on! BRAVO to the Prosecutor...He hung in there and I loved the looks he gave when the Murderer was trying to fool the jury!!

[LisaK13]

Sad story. It seems like the husband did kill the wife. Stabbed 63 times. There would have been more screaming. Was there signs of forced entry into the home? He should just have let her get a divorce. Now he's free already. And poor Thomas who it sounds like witnessed his mother bloody and stabbed to death. I never understand these stories.

[alittlelamb]

My TV went out 5 min before the verdict.........So glad I read this on line. I could not have slept. He should have got life or the death penalty. What was the Judge thinking?