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Update: Jones not guilty in murder case
Defendant charged for separate killings
Jones verdict
Defendant Terrence Jones, center, stands with his attorney Joshua Brockington as the not-guilty verdicts for all counts are read in the Liberty County Justice Center courtroom Thursday afternoon. - photo by Lewis Levine

Terrence G. Jones was found not guilty on all 23 counts in a murder case stemming from a 2010 armed robbery that ended in a fatal shooting in a Hinesville apartment.

The jury came to that conclusion around 5 p.m. Thursday after nearly four hours of deliberation.

Jones faced two counts of murder, nine counts of aggravated assault, nine counts of armed robbery, one count of burglary, one count of possession of a firearm or knife during commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

On Oct. 29, 2010, during an apparent poker game at an apartment in the 600 block of South Main Street, two men wearing masks reportedly burst inside. According to testimony presented by Atlantic Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Melissa Poole, the two men demanded money and personal possessions and fired several shots at the people inside the home. Poole said one of the men then walked up to Orlejandro Mark Smalls and shot him twice in the back of the head.

On Tuesday, two witnesses who were at the poker game at the time of the murder, were served subpoenas but refused to take the stand. Daryl Mackenzie, known to his friends as “Boone,” and Anthony Evans, known as “Capone,” were both arrested and spent the night in jail for contempt of court. On Wednesday morning, the two men did take the witness stand but said they couldn’t recall many of the details surrounding the night in question.

Jones’ former girlfriend testified Wednesday that Jones told her he killed Smalls after she, Jones and a third man, Antwan Lewis, headed out to the poker party in what was planned to be a robbery. She said she sat in the car and waited. When Jones and Lewis returned, she testified, Jones said he killed Smalls.

The ex-girlfriend said she did not tell police about this until she feared for her life after a domestic dispute with Jones in October 2013, when he threatened to kill her and her two children.

She said she knew it was time to come forward and reveal her secret, at which point she took detectives to the location where she had driven the men the night they decided to toss the cellphones and car keys they had stolen. The woman said Jones also tossed out the pistol he used and the two men burned the clothes they wore.

The woman contacted an attorney and agreed to testify if she had immunity from prosecution in Smalls’ death.

From the start of the trial, Liberty County Public Defender Joshua Brockington called Jones’ ex “a woman scorned,” something the defense attorney repeated during his closing arguments. He painted a picture of a woman who vowed vengeance to the point of fabricating the story she presented during her testimony.

Brockington also said that the state had failed to meet its burden to prove Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
In the end, the jury agreed.

Jones sat back and waited for the verdict to be read. One by one each count was returned with a not-guilty verdict. Halfway through, Jones placed his hands over his face and bowed his head down, appearing to give thanks. Later, he stood next to Brockington, smiled and shook his hand.

But Jones’ legal trouble is not finished.

Jones and another co-defendant, Roy Smith, are set to stand trial, tentatively set for Oct. 26. This stems from a Liberty County cold case file of a shooting that occurred on Feb. 9, 1996, in which Rolando McIntosh and Jeneral Morgan were killed and Richard Hillery was injured.

Jones and Smith are both charged with two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

The Coastal Courier reported that then-Liberty County Sheriff Office Chief Deputy Keith Moran said a fight that started in Long County spilled into Walthourville with a high-speed chase between two vehicles that ended on Wilder Road.

Moran said witnesses heard numerous gunshots from what might have been a semiautomatic weapon. He said the two vehicles were speeding through the area until one car lost control and struck a home on Wilder Road. Investigators found two men, later identified as Morgan and McIntosh, shot to death. Hillery was treated at Liberty Regional Medical Center.  

In November 2013, Liberty County Sheriff Steve Sikes and Hinesville Police Chief George Stagmeier formed a joint task force to investigate the July 1, 2012 death of Ernie Walthour.

New evidence was brought forward that allowed the grand jury to move forward with the indictment of Jones and Smith for the 1996 double-homicide case.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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