Defending Your Life

In Third Trial For Wife's Murder, Man Acts As Own Lawyer

(CBS) 
The Faceoff

Kim, Beth and Thomas all agreed to testify on their father’s behalf, and all wanted to help free their dad. To do that, Jerry counted on their testimony to put Busby at the crime scene.

Beth testified that Busby frequently growled at Thomas like a tiger prior to the murder, and Thomas testified that, on the night of the murder, he heard a loud, growling sound.

While Beth, Kim and Thomas stood by their father, Jerry knew it was his testimony, and not his childrens’, that jurors really want to hear. So, as his own attorney, he decided to take the stand and come face-to-face with Doersch, a confrontation 16 years in the making.

"Once I knew that the case was coming back, it was clear to me that there would be some sort of faceoff," says Doersch.

But Jerry says he didn’t look at it as a match between Doersch and himself. "I looked at it as an opportunity to present the evidence to a jury of twelve people and prove my innocence."

Before Doersch faced Jerry, a public defender assigned by the court to advise Jerry urged Jerry to explain his bizarre behavior after he discovered Lee had been stabbed.

Asked if and how he got wet on the night of the murder, Jerry testified that he heard water running in the master bedroom shower and went to turn it off, when he realized he was bleeding.

That’s not the story Jerry told at his first trial, and Doersch believed he had caught Jerry in a lie and whipped out transcripts, reading Jerry’s own words back to him. "I open the shower door and start reaching in and turn the shower off and step in, clothes and all, I let the water run from the top of my head down the front of my body," Doersch read.

After just a handful of questions, Doersch retreated, surprising Jerry. "I believe he was fairly convinced that he had lost the trial," observes Jerry.

Why didn’t Doersch go after Jones more aggressively? "Just because I have a stick to hit him with doesn’t mean I’m going to hit him with it," he says.

But Doersch used that stick in his closing statements.

"Exhibit one for the state is Jerry Jones, because he is still here. He is still alive," Doersch said, adding, "Danny Busby is offered up as the bogeyman and he was not. And he did not kill Lee Jones. We know who did. And it is Jerry Jones."

For the Jerry and his family, their long battle to win his freedom came down to one final argument.

"Jerry Jones’ name is on that ballot, not Danny Busby. It’s outrageous. It just doesn’t add up. I had no motive. I was not a violent person. I was not an explosive person. I’m the person you see standing before you today," Jerry told the jury, emotionally.

But Doersch thinks Jerry’s tearful closing was rehearsed, not genuine. "I think what the jury got to see was Jerry Jones acting in closing."

And for the third time, Jerry Jones’ fate was in the hands of a 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.