MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The trial for a Germantown man charged with killing his wife is about to get underway. Jury selection started Monday in the case of Chris Jones, but a mistake by the judge sent all those people packing.
Jones is charged with murdering his wife, Heather Palumbo-Jones, two years ago. The elementary school teacher’s body was found dumped in a wooded area near Fayette County. Her cause of death was ruled asphyxiation, and her body was found wrapped in an air mattress.
Judge Bobby Carter wasn’t pleased with Jones’ defense attorneys Monday morning. The judge made it clear he wasn’t happy about last-minute motions made by the defense team.
“Why wasn’t this filed pre-trial?” he asked.
Before the selection of the jury even began, the defense asked the judge ban jurors from seeing pictures of Heather’s body.
“The photographs of the deceased don’t hold any probative value. There’s no dispute as to the identity,” the defense argued.
Judge Carter disagreed.
“To say that a picture of that individual deceased would not have any probative value simply doesn’t make sense,” he said.
The defense also asked that the prosecution not be allowed to show a life picture, a photo of Heather while she was alive.
Potential jurors were called in and spent all day being questioned, but a mistake by Judge Carter sent them all home.
The judge violated a statute by telling the jurors possible sentences for Jones if he is convicted: life in prison or the death penalty.
Jones’ defense asked for a mistrial or a new jury panel, because of the slip.
Judge Carter granted the request for a new panel, and the whole process will start again Tuesday morning with a new group.
Meanwhile, Jones sat behind his team taking notes and smiling.
In April 2013, Jones told WREG he had no idea of his wife’s whereabouts.
“When is the last time you talked to her?” then-reporter Adam Hammond asked.
“That would’ve been Monday evening,” Jone replied.
“And how did that go?” Hammond continued.
“It was an upsetting discussion, as many of our discussions as of late are,” Jones said.
Jones admitted to getting into an argument with Palumbo-Jones the night she disappeared, but says he nothing to do with why no one can find her.
“I never would put my hands on her. I wanted nothing but reconciliation since the day this started,” he said.
Jones even showed News Channel 3 what he says is the last correspondence he had with his wife.
It’s an email that says, “I cannot face everyone with this. Please forgive me, it is too much. Please raise (the children) to remember me as their loving mommy.”
In court, where our cameras were not allowed, he admitted to faking his wife’s identity in the past.
When she moved out of their Germantown townhouse, he admitted trying to get MLGW to turn back on the lights by using his wife’s name and social security number.
Also on the stand, Jones admitted to recently printing out every single one of his wife’s text messages from her cell phone.
Jones’ own divorce attorney even dropped him as a client after Jones allegedly falsified a letter to Palumbo, pretending to be him.
