San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
After many years, mother tells her story
In this Back Story, Public Safety Editor Dana Littlefield talks about how she reported and wrote the story of Tameka Jones and her 2-year-old son, Jahi Turner, who went missing in April 2002. The case attracted a great deal of attention in San Diego County and beyond, some of which faded as years passed without definitive answers about what happened to the boy.
It ramped up again in 2016 when a murder charge was filed against Jahi’s stepfather, who always maintained that the child disappeared from a neighborhood park after the stepfather walked away to get the child a drink.
Q:
Why tell this story now?
A:
Tameka Jones reached out to me through a friend about a year after a San Diego jury deadlocked over whether her ex-husband was guilty of second-degree murder in Jahi’s case. She had testified in the trial, but she had not given any media interviews since shortly after Jahi disappeared.
She told me she wanted to tell her story, and I’m grateful she trusted me enough to let me interview her. So I f lew to Baltimore.
The story of what she’s been through, how she’s managed to cope, the difficulty she’s had discussing Jahi’s disappearance with people close to her — I found all of that extremely compelling.
It took a while to finish the interviews, the writing, the editing — and then COVID-19, an ongoing social justice movement, and the presidential election hit the news — so part of it was about finding the right moment to publish the story.
Q:
How much did you know about this case before meeting with Tameka Jones?
A:
I was very familiar with the case, although clearly not as intimately as the investigators, lawyers and the family.
I was one of many reporters who covered the searches for the boy in 2002.
Later, I wrote about the announcement that an arrest had been made in the case, and covered the court hearings leading up to the trial of Tieray Jones.
I also wrote a column in which I made the argument that many longtime San Diegans never forgot about Jahi Turner, although some people argue that cases involving other missing children got a lot more attention.
I did not attend the trial, as I had changed jobs by then, but I edited stories written by thencourts reporter Pauline Repard, who did a great job covering a complicated and highly emotional case.
Q:
Was there anything in particular that grabbed you about what Tameka Jones had to say?
A:
We had a brief conversation by phone before I went to Baltimore, because I wanted to get a preview of what she was likely to say in a longer interview. She told me right away that it wasn’t until many years after Jahi disappeared — well over a decade — that she allowed herself to believe he might not be coming home.
That said so much to me. In addition to all the other descriptors that apply to her — Navy veteran, businesswoman — she’s a mother, whose heart would not let her consider any other possibility.
I wanted to know the story of how that helped her, how it hurt her and how it changed over time.
Q:
Why didn’t prosecutors try the case in 2002?
A:
Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell explained in an interview that it was rare in 2002 and 2003 to see a murder case in the courts in which the victim’s body had not been found.
There was a “different prosecutorial mindset” at that time, he said, adding that some prosecutors were hesitant to pursue those kinds of cases right away, preferring to wait to see if more evidence would be discovered. “Maybe something else will come along. Maybe somebody will come forward,” Mitchell said. “But as time goes on, that likelihood becomes less and less realistic ... . ” At some point, he said, a decision has to be made about whether to go forward and seek justice for the victim.
The defense maintained in trial that the prosecution had not met its burden to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
The jury deadlocked on that charge, with two of the jurors voting to find the defendant guilty and 10 voting not guilty. A judge later dismissed the case outright.