Jason Jones Murder Trial: “Everything leads to Jason Jones”

DAKOTA COUNTY, Neb. (KTIV) – Ahead of closing arguments on Wednesday morning in the Jason Jones murder trial, the State recalled a police chief following Tuesday’s testimony of the defense’s lone witness.

Laurel, Nebraska Police Chief Ron Lundahl was recalled to the witness stand Wednesday morning after accusations made by Sherry Pallas. Pallas, who is a neighbor of victim Michele Ebeling and Jason and Carrie Jones, told the jury she saw a woman leaving the Ebeling residence after she heard gunshots inside the house.

Pallas’s husband, the state says, also posted a photo on social media of a “suicide” that showed Ebeling’s body covered by a white sheet outside the house. Chief Lundahl was sent to the Pallas residence to ask them to take it down. Pallas said, this never happened.

“(Lundahl’s) report reads, and correct me if I am wrong ‘I explained to Sherry Pallas that Allan had posted on social media regarding an apparent suicide in Laurel and attached a photo of a body with a sheet covering it’,” asked Assistant Attorney General Sandra Allen Tuesday during her cross-examination of Pallas. “That’s what the report says. Doesn’t it?”

“It does say that, but that is not true,” stated Pallas.

“So Mr. Lundahl is lying,” countered Allan.

“Someone is not telling the truth,” Pallas said on the stand.

Chief Lundahl was recalled to the witness stand Wednesday morning by the state. He said he saw the photo, which Sherry Pallas says was of the fire, not Ebeling’s body, before approaching the Pallas’s to take the post down. He also said Sherry Pallas never told him she saw someone leaving Ebeling’s home after she was murdered.

“(The photo) depicted the body later to be determined as Michele Ebeling lying on the grass, kind of south of the garage between the house and the garage area,” said Chief Lundahl of the social media photo posted by Pallas’s husband.

“When Mrs. Pallas talked to you, did she happen to mention that she had seen a female leaving the residence of Michele Ebeling the morning of Michele Ebeling’s murder?” asked Assistant Attorney General Corey O’Brien.

“No, she did not,” said Lundahl.

For the last 10 days, the State and the defense presented its case to the jurors, which included 37 witnesses and over 1,000 pieces of evidence and exhibits.

At 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday, the 12 Dakota County jurors were handed the case, to decide whether or not 44-year-old Jason Jones is guilty of the 10 felony crimes he is charged with.

Jason Jones is charged with four counts each of 1st-degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony and two counts of arson. He’s accused of shooting and killing the Twifords and Ebeling in their Laurel, Nebraska homes in the early morning hours of August 4, 2022, then setting each home on fire. If found guilty of 1st-degree murder, Prosecutors have stated they will seek the death penalty.

Jones’ trial was moved from Cedar County where the crime happened, to Dakota County after Judge Meismer ruled it would be difficult for Jones to get a fair trial from the jury pool there. Jones remains absent from the courtroom for the duration of the trial. A July ruling from the court granted his request to not appear in person for trial proceedings because Jones cannot sit for long periods following burn injuries he sustained the night of the shootings.

For more than 30 minutes Wednesday morning, Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Sandra Allen laid out the state’s facts in the case.

In opening statements, Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Corey O’Brien said it was hard to find the words to describe what happened in Laurel that morning. During closing arguments, Allen echoed that same sentiment.

“It’s hard to imagine that four people were gunned down in cold blood in a town the size of Laurel, 700 people. The word that comes to my mind is senseless. This was a senseless crime that makes absolutely no sense,” she said. “No reason why these people were murdered, but they were, and the evidence in this case that was presented during trial establishes that beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Allen stated that the evidence all points to Jason Jones, showing he had shown premeditation in killing the Twiford Family and Ebeling.

That premeditation, she said, can be seen in the shooting death of Janet Twiford, who was found still lying on her bed, on the other side of the doorway.

“Not only did Jason Jones shoot Gene from the doorway, he walked into the bedroom and he fired 1, 2, 3 times,” Allen told the jury. “Those steps, walking into that bedroom to shoot Janet and pulling that trigger 1, 2, 3 times shows his intent was to kill her.”

Premeditation is the main point in convicting someone of first-degree murder.

Other evidence that the state says points to premeditation is Jones’s trip to buy two red gas cans and a backpack at Fleet Farm on August 3, 2022. Those red gas cans were filled up at Rath’s Mini Mart in Laurel hours later. One of those red gas cans was found inside Ebeling’s living room. The backpack was found burned on the floor inside the Twiford home. The third red gas can was located in the Twiford’s bathroom, though that wasn’t determined until well after the crimes after investigators were reviewing photos taken of the scene.

Investigators were initially pointed towards Jones as a suspect after a backpack found on Ebeling’s kitchen table contained several receipts, including those for the Fleet Farm purchase and the gas, all paid for by credit and debit cards linked to Jones.

The state also highlighted text messages between Jones and his wife Carrie the afternoon of August 3, that appeared to show them following victim Gene Twiford around town.

Investigators found a Ruger-57 handgun inside the burned living room of the Twiford home. That gun had been purchased by Jason Jones and had his DNA on it. That gun was also the one that fired the shots that killed the three Twiford family members.

Jones’s defense team isn’t contesting he killed the Twifords. But defense attorney Matthew McDonald says, Jones can’t be guilty of the premeditated murder of Janet and Dana Twiford, because he “didn’t know they existed”.

In jail calls between Jones and his mother that were played for the jury, Jones can be heard claiming that Janet hadn’t been seen in eight years and that no one knew he had a daughter in the house.

McDonald told the jury in his closing, that Jones was surprised by Janet and Dana Twiford in the house and hadn’t planned on killing them. Therefore, he can’t be convicted of 1st-degree murder.

Another item that has come into play, is an alleged note that Jason Jones wrote in the Notes app on his iPhone. The note, found in the deleted folder, was created in the evening hours of August 3, and last edited just after 1 a.m. on August 4. The 911 call about a fire at Ebeling’s home at 209 Elm was called in by a neighbor two hours later, at 3:11 a.m.

The fire at the Twiford home at 503 Elm was discovered around 9:30 a.m., while investigators were on the scene investigating Ebeling’s homicide. Investigators believe the Twiford’s home was set on fire first, but smoldered undiscovered for hours.

Jones’s defense team says that the note, which talks of going out in a “funeral pyre, a la Darth Vader”, is proof of his mental state at the time of his murders, and that Jones didn’t plan on surviving the night.

“Nobody would have done this if they didn’t have mental health issues,” McDonald said.

Carrie Jones, court records state, had accused Twiford of harassing her and text messages between Jason and Carrie Jones that were displayed in court showed a clear vendetta against the elder Twiford.

“I really f—ing hate that guy about to go kill his —” Jason Jones wrote in a text to Carrie Jones on April 30, 2022.

The defense is hoping to convict Jones on lesser charges because they say you can’t convict someone of 1st-degree premeditated murder when they are having a mental breakdown.

“There’s only one person who went to burn themselves up that night,” McDonald said. “If Mr. Jones had a mental breakdown, he can’t premeditate this.”

The defense encouraged the jury to convict him on the right charges, not just the ones the state threw at him.

“He is clearly guilty of the Twifords. What you’re going to determine for the Twifords, for each one is whether the first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter?” McDonald told the jury. “So you’re going to hold him accountable. The question is, what’s appropriate is off of his mental state at the time you killed the Twifords.”

McDonald also claims that the evidence shows Jones didn’t kill Michele Ebeling. The evidence, he told the jury, points to Carrie Jones as the one who pulled the trigger.

“Carrie Jones killed Michele Ebeling,” McDonald said. “Mr. Jones did not have a dog in the fight with Michele Ebeling.”

In Jason Jones’s jail calls with his mother after the murders, he claimed Ebeling and her fiancé Brian Welch were “possessed” and had “black eyes”, and would sit outside their home in their underwear and watch the Jones’s.

Sherry Pallas, the defense’s only witness, told jurors she saw a woman leaving Ebeling’s home after she heard two gunshots. Pallas never told this to the police.

“There was no evidence she pulled the trigger,” Allan countered in her rebuttal. “There is nothing in the house that points the finger at her.”

Another question from the defense is if Jones committed 1st-degree arson, which by law, says a person can only commit if he/she knows there is a living person inside.

The Twiford’s and Ms. Ebeling were already dead, the forensic pathologist said in her testimony, when the fires were set.

“And what do you need for first-degree arson, a live person in the house when the fire started,” said McDonald during closing arguments. “Think about that. You need a live person in the house when that fire is started. Start asking yourselves, if the Twifords were dead and Ms. Ebeling was dead when those fires were started. They were dead. There zero dispute about that.”

The state countered in the rebuttal, saying there was no way Jones knew that the four people he had shot had already perished.

All evidence, the gas can at Ebeling’s home, the gun inside the Twiford’s home, plus the Mountain Dew bottle filled with gasoline and the prybar outside the Twiford’s back door, and several other pieces of evidence, all had Jason Jones’s DNA and fingerprints, according to the Nebraska State Patrol crime lab. The bullets used in the murders, came from two of Jones’ firearms.

Jason Jones was arrested in the early morning hours of August 5, 2022 in his home at 206 Elm, across the street from Michele Ebeling’s home. Jones was found mostly naked in his bed, suffering from severe burns to his arms, hands and legs. He spent several months in a burn unit in Lincoln, Nebraska before being transferred to a correctional facility.

“Everything leads to Jason Jones at both of those houses,” Allen told the jury, saying a motive is not required to convict. “We don’t always have to prove motive, but it is a question everyone wants to know. It’s ridiculous the stories he comes up with to justify his actions in killing these people.”

To date, authorities have not been able to find a connection between the Twiford family and Michele Ebeling. But in the courtroom, the two families were united as one.

The jury was in deliberations until 7 p.m. Wednesday. Because they did not reach a verdict before the night ended, they are being sequestered, or put up in a hotel for the night, and will continue deliberations Thursday at 9 a.m.

Jones’s wife, Carrie Jones, faces charges related to the murders, specifically aiding and abetting the death of Gene Twiford. She had pleaded not guilty to 1st-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and being an accessory to a felony. Her next hearing is set for November in Cedar County District Court.

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