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Teen gets sympathy from court after killing baby, could be released in 76 days.

Quote:

BY JULIE EDGAR
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Selena Jones' murder case was problematic from the start, and during her three-hour sentencing Thursday, it was clear the problems are far from resolved.

Jones, 18, of Detroit was found guilty in May of drowning her full-term baby, a daughter she subsequently named Angel, in a toilet two years ago at Providence Hospital in Southfield. Through tears Thursday, she denied again that she knew she was pregnant and had intended to kill her newborn.

"I'd like you to know I don't think I should be sent to prison," Jones, in jeans and a denim coat lined with faux fur, told the judge. "Not a day goes by that I don't think of my daughter. I went to the hospital for help, not to murder my daughter."

Oakland County Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris departed dramatically from the sentencing guidelines, which called for a minimum of 7 1/2 to 12 1/2 years, and ordered Jones to spend 2 to 15 years in prison.

With credit for the 654 days she has been on an electronic tether, Jones could be released in 76 days, Assistant Prosecutor John Skrzynski said. He said he would review the legality of giving credit to someone who has been on a tether and that an appeal is possible.

From the start, Jones maintained that she didn't know she was pregnant and never would have gone to the hospital complaining of severe stomach cramps if she had. Her attorney, Warren Harris, argued as much to the jury and objected to allowing the jury to consider a manslaughter conviction.

The eight jurors who wrote letters to the judge afterward might have gone with that charge, they said.

Their letters show they were anguished by the case, telling the judge that they stood by their verdict but wanted leniency for Jones. They cited her age, her confusion the night she went to the Southfield hospital's emergency room and the possibility that she had been overcharged.

One wrote, "I cannot see how state prison is going to help a troubled, now-18-year-old girl."

Two of the jurors showed up at Thursday's sentencing, along with a dozen of Jones' friends and relatives, who cried throughout.

Langford Morris, who said she had never received more than one letter from a juror in her 12 years on the bench, noted repeatedly that the facts of the case were "exceptional."

Before passing sentence, she had a clerk read each of the jurors' letters for the record and then foreshadowed her reasons for departing from the sentencing guidelines. Among them was the testimony of a nurse in the emergency room the night of Oct. 27, 2002, who said she didn't notice Jones' pregnancy when Jones appeared at the hospital with her mother moaning about abdominal pain. The judge also said Jones' age at the time -- 16 --was "exceptional," too, and that the system had let her down.

The judge also castigated Jones' attorney for allowing his emotional ties to the Jones family to cloud his judgment. Harris should have objected to testimony about Jones' abortion at age 14 and should have argued against allowing a videotape showing the dead infant in a hospital crib to be shown to the jurors, the judge said.

"I agree with jurors who said that the defense was not what it should have been," Langford Morris said.

Jones has never spent time in jail but has been tethered electronically. She has not been able to finish school at Henry Ford High School and has done little more than stay in her northwest Detroit home with her mother and go to doctor appointments.

Her mother, Joycelyn Jones, also spoke Thursday, telling the judge that the past two years were the worst of her life.

"I lost my granddaughter," she said quietly. "My daughter Selena is not a murderer. She loves kids. Kids are always around our house."

Langford Morris also ordered that Jones get regular mental health treatment and schooling to enable her to finish high school.

Despite the judge's admonishments, Harris said he was pleased with the sentence. He expects the judge to appoint another attorney to appeal the verdict.

As sheriff's deputies escorted Jones from the courtroom, her hands cuffed behind her, she yelled, "I love you, Mom!"

http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/jones3e_20041203.htm