Man convicted of murder, cover-up arson
A 26-year-old man faces the possibility of life in prison without parole after he was convicted Monday of murdering a woman during a burglary at her East Side condo and setting a fire to cover up the crime.
A Franklin County jury deliberated for more than seven hours over two days before finding Jeremay M. Jones guilty on all counts, including aggravated murder and aggravated arson, in the shooting death of Anna Marie Ferriman on March 16, 2015. The body of the 62-year-old was found in the embers of her burned condominium in the 1100 block of Fountain Lane.
An autopsy determined that she died from a gunshot wound to the head before the fire started. The bullet recovered during the autopsy was found to have been fired by a gun that Jones discarded while being chased by police after he was spotted breaking into cars in the neighborhood.
Jones, formerly of East 23rd Street in South Linden, is to be sentenced on Dec. 7 by Common Pleas Judge Jenifer French.
Jones also was convicted of aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse and gun specifications.
Assistant Prosecutors Warren Edwards and Joseph Murnane built their case on ballistics evidence as well as cellphone data that tracked Jones’ phone to the area around Ferriman’s home on the morning of the murder.
It was the first known case in Franklin County in which Google location data was used, in addition to cellulartower records, to track a defendant’s phone, prosecutors said. Google location history, which can be tracked only if the timeline feature on a subject’s phone is enabled, is a more precise tool than cell-tower records.
Jones admitted at trial that he was in the neighborhood around the time of the murder, but he said he was breaking into cars with three other people and never entered Ferriman’s home. He said he handed his gun to an accomplice during one of the car break-ins and later heard a gunshot. He testified that the gun eventually was returned to him before his arrest.
Investigators think Ferriman was murdered after she returned from a trip to the grocery store and either interrupted a burglary in her condominium or was forced into her residence at gunpoint after being confronted in the parking lot.
Jones’ 43-year-old mother, Desiree C. Jones, is accused of helping her son by retrieving a gun that was not linked to the shooting from outside a residence in Whitehall after she spoke with him in a recorded jail call. She is scheduled for trial in December on charges of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.