Attorneys for the man accused of murder in the death of two year old Jahi Turner have filed a motion to dismiss the case.
On Friday, the attorney for Tieray Jones, Turner’s step father, filed a notice and motion to dismiss “due to denial of speedy trial.”
The toddler disappeared in 2002 after Jones reported the boy missing from a playground in Golden Hill (the area is now part of South Park). Jones told investigators he left to get the child a drink, and when he returned 15 minutes later, the boy was gone.
The child’s disappearance set off a large search from hundreds of volunteers and police. The search even led teams to a local landfill. Jahi Turner was never found.
In April 2016, 14 years after the child’s disappearance, Jones was arrested in North Carolina. Investigators cited new evidence, including writings from Jones in a journal.
Attorneys for Jones have rejected the notion of ‘new evidence’, saying the journal was available to investigators in 2002. They also say District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis rejected prosecution in 2004.
His attorneys say Jones would be hard pressed to get a fair trial because many favorable witnesses have died, or may have forgotten details 14 years after the fact. They also are concerned Jones’ ex-wife, who once supported him, may not be a favorable witness because of a nasty divorce.
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“This works against Mr. Jones because there are witnesses in 2002, they would have said ‘yes I saw it’ and it would have exonerated him we believe,” said attorney Alex Ozols.
“What we’re worried about is, because of the delay, now he’s not going to get a fair trial and now he may be convicted because of it. If they would have brought this case to trial before it was closed in 2004, when they had all the evidence that we believe they have now, then Mr. Jones would have gotten a fair trial,” Ozols added.
The district attorney’s office would not comment on the motion to dismiss because it’s an ongoing criminal case.
Attorneys for Jones say they’ve had to look through more than 100,000 pages of documents, and more than 100 hours of audio recordings, which has delayed Jones’ preliminary hearing.
That hearing is now set for December 5th.
