A Salem jury convicted Wilma Jean Jones of murder Thursday, rejecting her testimony that shooting and killing her boyfriend was the only defense she had to his threats and abuse.
Jones, 45, stood impassively as the jury鈥檚 verdict was read: Guilty of the second-degree murder of Joshua Dwayne Dickson, using a firearm in the crime, and possessing the black .22-caliber pistol as a convicted felon.
At about 9 p.m. Sept. 27, a distraught Jones called 911 and said she had just shot Dickson, 44, in her sister鈥檚 house on Hale Avenue, where they had spent the better part of the afternoon drinking and quarrelling.
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She would later tell authorities 鈥 and repeated to the jury 鈥 that Dickson had directed her to strip and wear a collar around her neck as he became increasingly angry over her insistence that he leave the house.
Jones testified that Dickson, who had been convicted of assaulting her in the past, grabbed her by the neck, pushed her against a wall and slapped her so hard she fell to the floor. After retreating to a bedroom, Jones said, she took the gun from a nightstand, returned to a hallway where Dickson was standing, and shot him three times in the chest.
She didn鈥檛 want to kill her boyfriend, Jones told the jury, even though she feared what he would do to her if she didn鈥檛.
鈥淚 loved the man,鈥 she testified. 鈥淚 saw something good in him. My mistake was thinking I could help him overcome his demons.鈥
On cross-examination, Deputy Commonwealth鈥檚 Attorney Matt Pollard asked Jones why she felt afraid of Dickson from behind the locked door of the bedroom. He suggested that the unarmed man no longer posed a threat when Jones decided to go back and confront him at gunpoint.
鈥淒id he have a weapon?鈥 Pollard asked.
鈥淛osh was a weapon,鈥 Jones replied.
She later explained: 鈥淗is demeanor was threatening.鈥
Jones said she had learned during their troubled relationship the warning signs of when he would become violent. 鈥淗is jaw was clenched,鈥 she testified. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see it deescalating. I was afraid, and there was no doubt in my mind that if he got a hold of me ...鈥 she said, her voice trailing off.
鈥淚t was justified,鈥 defense attorney Scott Gardner said in asking the jury to find that his client acted in self-defense. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a weapon, and she did the only thing she could to protect herself.鈥
Jones鈥 sister, Vicki Miller, described the relationship as 鈥渧olatile.鈥 Miller had agreed to let Jones stay in her home off East Main Street 鈥 on the condition that Dickson was not to set foot on the property.
On Sept. 27, when Miller was at LewisGale Medical Center with her ill husband, Jones invited Dickson over to the house. She soon became worried that her sister would come home to find the unwanted guest, and pleaded with him to leave.
Jones became more upset when Dickson went outside to retrieve their dogs, worried that neighbors would see him and tell Miller. What had begun as a verbal argument eventually turned violent, she told the jury.
When police arrived, they found Dickson lying on his back in a pool of blood. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
In his closing arguments, Pollard pointed to the many inconsistencies in the stories Jones told, first to police the night the night of the shooting and then to the jury in Salem Circuit Court.
Shortly after the incident, Jones called two friends, asking both of them to help her cover up the crime, according to testimony. She agreed to call 911 only at the urging of both friends, and since then has frequently changed her account of what happened in an attempt to fit the facts with her theory of self-defense, Pollard said.
鈥淪he can say whatever she wants because there are no other witnesses,鈥 the prosecutor told the jury. 鈥淭he only witness is dead by her hand.鈥
After hearing a day and a half of testimony, the jury of six women and six men deliberated for about two and a half hours. The only part of their verdict that favored Jones was their decision not to convict her of first-degree murder, which required proof of premeditation.
Jones will be sentenced later by Circuit Judge David Carson. She faces a maximum punishment of 48 years, and was returned to jail following the trial to await her next court date.
