Michael A. Jones has decided to request to withdraw his guilty plea after telling the court his lawyer pressured him into pleading guilty to the murder of his son who was eaten by pigs after he was killed.
Jones stood before a Wyandotte County judge and said, "There’s a lot I’m guilty of. I’m just not guilty of first-degree murder."
The guilty plea was originally entered in March when Jones, 46, pleaded guilty in Wyandotte County to felony first-degree murder for the death of his 7-year-old son in 2015, Adrian Jones. Jones was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole for at least 25 years.
Jones is now trying to take back the guilty plea under the pretense his lawyer threatened to stop defending him if he did not plead guilty. His attorney, John Duma, has been practicing criminal law for 30 years and testified that he would present the defense anyway Jones wanted but if he went to trial he believed the jury would try to find Jones guilty of a more serious crime such as premeditated first-degree murder because of the gruesome nature of the crime.
That crime would have resulted in a sentence of no parole for 50 years instead of the 25 prosecutors offered in their plea deal. Duma asserts he simply informed Jones of what was in his best interest and encouraged him to accept the plea deal. "I told him I think they’ll (a jury) do everything they can to find you guilty of the most serious crime available" Duma said in his testimony.
The 7-year-old's remains were found in November 2015 on property rented by Jones and his wife who was also sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors described how Adrian was abused, tortured, and starved before his body was ultimately fed to the pigs.
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Source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article182606786.html
