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DAKOTA CITY – SWAT team members entering Jason Jones’ Laurel home found him lying in a first-floor bedroom, wearing only a black zip-up sweatshirt without any pants or underwear.
Jones was going in and out of consciousness with some groaning as he was taken from the residence and carried out to a waiting ambulance, said Lt. Jesse Pfeifer of the Nebraska State Patrol.
Jurors watched SWAT team body camera footage and graphic photos showing bright red patches of burned skin on Jones’ hands, legs and arms with edges of burns depicted with gray, flaking skin. He was missing a fingernail on his left hand and his feet contained fecal matter.
The video and photos were entered into evidence Thursday, the sixth day of the trial as the prosecution laid out evidence against Jones who is accused of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Gene Twiford, Janet Twiford, Dana Twiford and Michele Ebeling. After he allegedly shot them, prosecutors say he set their homes on fire on Aug. 4, 2022.
Jones was identified as a suspect at around 10 p.m. the day of the murders and the SWAT team was deployed at about 2 a.m. Aug. 5, 2022, said Lt. Alan Eberle of the Nebraska State Patrol.
Throughout those early morning hours, their presence was announced outside the Jones home, asking him to surrender.
Brian Detlefsen, a Nebraska State Patrol negotiator, attempted to call Jones more than 20 times and sent four text messages. The phone calls rang and then went to voicemail; only two of the text messages were read.
Through cross examination, Detlefsen said he made contact with Jones’ wife, Carrie, by phone, who said her husband was injured, and where to find him in the home.
The SWAT team used a ram to push in the Jones’ front door, and drones and robots were deployed to enter “to see what it is we’re possibly walking into,” Eberle said.
Next, chemical agents were introduced into the house.
“It makes you cough. It makes you uncomfortable. When an individual experiences it, they leave the area they are in to leave the chemical itself,” Eberle said of using chemical agents in the past.
Next, windows were broken out on the home and Jones was located in the bedroom.
The SWAT team entered through the home’s deck door, went through the kitchen and to the bedroom to extricate Jones, as shown to jurors through an officer’s body camera.
Jones’ lawyer, Matt McDonald, took issue with the SWAT team continuing to introduce chemical agents into the home even after Carrie Jones told them where to find her husband.
Eberle said, in his experience, a spouse can give inaccurate information.
“Is an injured dog still a dangerous dog?” Prosecutor Corey O’Brien asked and Eberle answered affirmatively.
Outside the presence of the jury, Jones’ lawyer Todd Lancaster objected to the prosecution calling the defendant names and Judge Bryan Meismer admonished O’Brien for the comment.
Others who testified Thursday and the information they provided include: Sgt. Brad Higgins, Nebraska State Patrol - Said there was no obvious connection between the victims and Jones except they all lived on Elm Street in Laurel.
- After the discovery of receipts at the crime scene linking to Jones, he conducted a law enforcement database query on him to obtain his basic information, photo, address and criminal history. An ATF request was made to trace the owner of the gun found at the Twiford home, which came back to Jones.
- Obtained a search and arrest warrant for Jones’ residence at 206 Elm St..
- Obtained security video footage from businesses related to receipts. Jurors looked at footage showing Jones at Rath’s Mini Mart and Cubby’s in Laurel; Fleet Farm and McDonald’s in Sioux City, Iowa, on Aug. 3, 2022 - the day before the murders. In the video taken from Rath’s, Jones is seen filling two gas cans consistent with what was found at the Ebeling and Twiford homes.
Investigator Jeremy Hampton, Nebraska State Patrol - Photographed Jones’ injuries at the time of his arrest.
- Identified Jones through his operator’s license located in a wallet on the nightstand in the bedroom where he was located. The wallet included 16 credit cards which Hampton said was not unusual for those employed as truck drivers.
Noah Behrens, loss prevention employee at Fleet Farm - Provided transaction records and video depicting Jones’ purchase corresponding with the receipt law enforcement found at Ebeling’s home.
Forensic Chemist Christine Gabig - Performed ignitable liquid analysis from 10 samples total - five from the Ebeling home and five from the Twiford home.
- including multiple flooring samples, a pair of pants worn by Ebeling, liquid taken from a gas can, liquid taken from a plastic bottle, and a rag found inside the plastic bottle.
- Gabig’s analysis concluded all 10 samples contained gasoline. Although she didn’t have any control samples, the gasoline found on the items would not be the same as petroleum products generally found in carpeting and carpeting adhesive. “The data is the data. Anyone can look at this case file, do the analysis and come to the same conclusions,” she said.
Sgt. Stacie Lundgren, Nebraska State Patrol - By court order, collected DNA through buccal swab from Jones while he was being treated at St. Elizabeth’s hospital burn unit in Lincoln. She also photographed burn wounds.
- Attempted to collect fingerprints but explained it was difficult due to Jones laying in bed and from his injuries. Some bandaging had to be removed and fingerprints only on one hand were able to be collected.
Mariana Ward, latent fingerprint supervisor, Nebraska State Patrol crime lab - Processed multiple pieces of evidence to develop any latent fingerprint data, finding a latent fingerprint on a plastic bottle and a palm print on a gas can which matched Jones.
During cross examination, Lancaster attacked the validity of fingerprint analysis, citing recent studies on high incidences of error as well as a highprofile international case in which someone was incorrectly identified as a suspect using fingerprinting.
