Defending Your Life

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

(CBS) 
The Verdict

After a grueling three-week trial, jurors reached a verdict in just four-and-a-half hours.

The short deliberation worried Doersch but, moments later, the verdict was read: guilty as charged.

Jurors remember a tense courtroom as they filed in with their verdict. "I looked at Jerry Jones. And I looked at Ron Doersch. I think both of those guys have had a very personal role in this thing for the last 16 years," one recalled.

What was Jerry thinking as he heard the verdict? "You just shake your head in disbelief and, ‘What on earth are they thinking?’"

For Doersch, getting a third conviction was a tremendous relief, and he believes justice was served again. "It was served in 2001. It was served in 1989. It’s the right verdict."

Jurors say they didn’t buy Jerry’s version of events.

"We went through everything and it just didn't fit," says one juror, who questioned Jerry’s explanation for the cuts on his hand.

Jurors also didn’t buy Jerry’s story of only hearing a single scream, as his wife was being stabbed 63 times in the next room. "I've lived in a split level house myself. I could be downstairs and hear stuff going on upstairs in the bathroom. I think there was a terrible struggle. And, I think you would a heard that all over that house," a female juror remarked.

The jury also thought the 911 call was off. "On the whole 911 tape, he never cried," one juror remarked. "And then, he would put down the phone and run and go do this. And, put down the phone and run and go do that. When you’re on the phone with 911, you stay on the phone," another commented.

And what about Busby, the person Jerry claims is the real killer? While jurors found Busby unlikable, they also felt there was no real evidence linking him to the crime scene.

"He was being very honest about the fact he had hit a few women, he had pushed their head into the steering wheel. He admitted to everything," one juror said.

It was Jerry Jones they didn’t believe.

Five days after being convicted, Jones returned to court for sentencing and for the third time, his daughters asked for compassion

"Everyone talks about how much we love our dad. But they seem to forget how much we loved our mother," Beth Jones said.

But for Pam O’Keefe, Busby’s mother, Jerry Jones didn’t deserve sympathy. "The evil started the night Jerry Jones murdered his wife and the next day when he accused my son of doing it."

No one knows how years of being vilified affected Busby’s life, but his mother believes Jerry needs to be punished for all the lives he has damaged.

When it was Jerry’s turn, he seemed remorseful. "I wish Danny Busby’s name had not come to mind. I have no reason to bring his name into these proceedings."

The judge then sentenced Jerry, for the third time, to 25 years.

Yet, just a few months later, back in prison, Jerry Jones is defiant once again. Asked if he owes Busby an apology, Jones says, "No. I do not owe Danny Busby an apology, and none will be forthcoming."

"I think it's entirely likely that, at this point, he's managed to convince himself that he did not commit this murder," says Doersch. For him, the battle against Jerry Jones is over.

And Doersch is moving on: Instead of prosecuting, he’ll be enforcing the law, as a deputy sheriff.

But the case that has consumed Doersch’s life for so many years will be much more difficult to leave behind. "I don't know that anything we can do in a courtroom can really put the dead to rest. Clearly, the family has been damaged, I think, beyond repair by what Jerry Jones did. So in terms of whether Lee Jones can rest, why, I hope she can rest. The rest of us, I don't think can."

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As a result of time served and good behavior, Jerry Jones will be eligible for release from prison in two years.

[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.