Convicted child killer Tim Jones has been sentenced to death.
A Lexington jury came back with the sentence after a unanimous vote Thursday.

The jury deliberated less than two hours before the sentence was announced between 3 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.

Last week, Jones, 37, was found guilty of five counts of murder. He killed his five children in August 2014.

The children killed were Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2; and Abagail Elaine, 1 in Lexington County.

Statement from Rick Hubbard: 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office

On August 28, 2014, Merah, Elias, Nahtahn, Gabriel, and Abigail lost their lives at the hands of their father, Timothy Jones, Jr. The Lexington County jury convicted Jones of five counts of Murder last week on June 4th. Today, the same jury gave these five innocent children the justice they deserved when they returned a death verdict.

Our office, multiple law enforcement agencies, and this Lexington community have carried this case for years. It took a long time to get here and we are grateful to the men and women of the County of Lexington that served on this jury. We sincerely thank them.

I want to take the opportunity to thank several other people. I want to begin by thanking the prosecution team. Deputy Solicitors Shawn Graham and Suzanne Mayes, Chief Investigator Matt Martin, and Senior Paralegals Tara Grigsby and Rhonda Robinson have been phenomenal. This was truly a team effort. I also want to thank Senior Assistant Deputy AG Melody Brown with the South Carolina Attorney General for all of her assistance.

I want to thank Lexington County Sheriff’s Department Sheriff Jay Koon, Lt. Jesse Laintz, Sgt. Adam Creech, and the entire Sheriff’s Department. Thank you to Sheriff Charlie Crumpton, former Undersheriff Marty Patterson and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi. I appreciate the assistance of Special Agent Dave Mackey with the FBI. Chief Mark Keel and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) assisted us in several aspects of this case and I am grateful to them.