'What these people took from us was priceless': Slain Marine veteran's family still seeks justice
Weeks after a jury found the woman accused in the 1997 murder of former Marine Keith Jones innocent, three of his siblings are frustrated, angry and continue to search for answers.
Melissa Jones-Adams, Veronica Jones Green and Kevin Jones are back to square one.
"The fight is not over," Jones-Adams said. "Because the people that did this murder ... The shooting and took our brother away from us ... Are out there living their lives ... 25 years and, maybe, many more before they're brought to justice."
Cold case verdict: Cape Coral woman innocent in Marine's 1997 slaying
Previously: Trial begins for suspect in 1997 murder of Marine Corps veteran
Communication with Fort Myers police
Jones Green found out about her brother's murder June 19, 1997. Keith Jones was murdered while staying at the Tides Motel in Fort Myers, which has since closed.
"I was devastated," Jones Green said. "The entire family was shocked and devastated."
Jones Green said their parents were determined to find out what happened to Keith Jones.
She said that Fort Myers police, including detectives Charles Lawson and Barry Lewis, weren't communicating with the family.
Both men testified at Michelle Ashley's murder trial, who was found not guilty Sept. 2 following a four-day trial. She was accused of playing a role in Keith Jones' murder that summer night.
One of the two detectives, who Jones Green said she couldn't remember, called her while the family gathered for the veteran's funeral services.
"I picked up the phone," Jones Green said. "They introduced themselves and told us ... It wasn't I'm sorry for your loss, anything ... I just thought that was kind of disingenuous to the family."
Detectives at the time told the Daytona Beach family to avoid the Fort Myers area.
After a prolonged silence from Fort Myers police, the siblings' parents hired private investigators and an attorney, Jones Green said.
As the years went on and the siblings continued to not receive updates from police, the three took it upon themselves to help crack the case, Jones Green said. That was around 2013.
"From there, it was an uphill battle," Jones Green said.
Similar to Jones Green, Jones-Adams said she wasn't going to give up.
"We're not going to go away," Jones-Adams said. "We're fighting for our brother, because we're not going to allow his death to be in vain, especially when there were perpetrators involved."
Jones-Adams says she's frustrated because police failed to follow protocol when they didn't arrest and question the four men mentioned in court documents.
When detectives first interviewed Ashley, she told them the four men robbed and murdered Keith Jones. Prosecutors at the trial said Ashley later changed her story.
"That was protocol and they failed to do that," Jones-Adams said.
She briefly paused as she tried to find the words to describe the feelings that brought.
"They had the answers," Jones-Adams said. "They had it, but they did nothing with it."
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Jones-Adams blames police for not verifying Ashley's claims of calling a cab the night of the murder. The detail was vital in the case, as the driver would've been one of few witnesses that night.
"They didn't even check any of that, and that could have been of vital information to the case," Jones-Adams said. "There's a lot that the judge wouldn't allow that could have made a difference."
Jones-Adams emphasized that the family won't give up.
"There's no resolve for the family," Jones-Adams said. "We still will be tortured in our souls and our minds of who will fight for us now."
Jones-Adams added that the heartbreaking part for the family is that Ashley can't be retried on the same charges now.
"The fact of it is those four perpetrators are still walking out and have the opportunity to live their lives wherever they may be," Jones-Adams said. "They are afforded that right now. But we want to let them know we're going to continue to fight."
Jones-Adams added the siblings still believe Ashley was involved in Keith Jones' death.
Kevin Jones emphasized Ashley's role that night.
"She was the principal individual," Kevin Jones said. "She started the stew."
Kevin Jones added that at the time they didn't have cell phones, rather pagers.
"I was working that evening and I received the 911 text on my pager to call," Kevin Jones said. "I stopped at the nearest payphone and made a call to my sister's number."
The three siblings, who Kevin Jones metaphorically refers to as "The Three Musketeers," said the case led each of them to take anxiety and depression medication.
A victim's advocate at the police department told the family they're the first to seek support for a cold case.
"I thought that was really strange and odd that we're the first family to come to the office to look for support," Jones-Adams said.
How did the siblings find out?
At the time of the murder, each of the three lived in different parts of the country.
"When we found out that Keith was murdered I was living in Jacksonville at the time," Jones Green said. "I got a phone call that he had been murdered and I couldn't believe it."
Jones Green said Keith Jones had just left her home.
The slain Marine veteran had been visiting his sister to celebrate her June 15 birthday just days before his murder, Jones Green recalled.
At the time, he lived with Jones-Adams.
"Many nights sitting, talking on my front porch," Jones-Adams said. "I miss that ... The genuine conversations about life and his path of where he wanted to go."
When she heard about the former Marine's passing, Jones-Adams said she was at the hospital with her daughter.
"I got word and I couldn't contain myself," Jones-Adams said. "I passed out, they put me in a wheelchair and took me to another room and asked what was on the other end of the phone call."
Hospital staff sent someone to the room to talk with Jones-Adams, she said.
Jones-Adams said she was upset because Keith Jones had asked her to accompany him to Fort Myers and she declined.
"I became angry ... He wanted me to go with him," Jones-Adams said. "I was like, 'What if I had gone?'"
Jones-Adams said her brother's murder has taken a toll.
"It was hard. But you have to find a way to fight through it, to deal with it," Jones-Adams said. "Because we weren't going to relent. That's the big thing about it."
Kevin Jones said he didn't have any emotions at the time.
"I didn't know what to think ... I didn't know what to feel," Kevin Jones said. "I didn't know what to say. I hung up the phone and I said, 'I'll be home tomorrow.'"
Kevin Jones said when he got home that evening he sat in the living room.
"In my mind, I just replayed a lot of life of the times I shared with my brother ... My family," Kevin Jones said. "How close we were, he being my twin brother ... We had a kinetic type of spiritual bond."
Kevin Jones said the identical twins' connection was so strong that Keith Jones would have a dream and Kevin Jones would be able to finish it.
"He would think something and I would say it ... I would think something and then he would say it," Kevin Jones said. "We were just that closely knitted in a supernatural type of way."
Whenever either of the twins got into trouble, their mother would call both of them, as if their names was compound, Kevin Jones said as he chuckled.
They'd both come scrambling to her voice, he added.
"We were that hard to tell apart, even with our teachers," Kevin Jones said. "In elementary school and going to middle school, if he was good in one subject and I was bad at that subject, he would switch classes with me. And the teachers couldn't tell us apart."
Kevin Jones said he hasn't taken a moment to really purge himself with a good cry for his twin brother's no-resolve.
They played together, they laughed together and they fought together, Kevin Jones said.
"We even had our little squabbles between brothers getting angry at each other," Kevin Jones said. "As it is right now, I'm just trying to survive still."
Kevin Jones said it's been hard to find the words that express how his brother's murder made him feel.
"Something was taken from me. When I looked down at Keith in the casket, I saw myself lying there," Kevin Jones said as he removed his glasses to dry the tears. "When I was in court, and they showed the graphic photos of the murder scene, I pictured myself there because I was looking back at myself."
Kevin Jones said he's had to seek counseling over the years to deal with the grief, anxiety and depression.
"To try to cope with 25 years of no resolve, it has affected me," Kevin Jones said.
Jones Green shared a similar disappointment.
"This was a very easy case," Jones Green said. "It should not have gone this long."
'No closure for the family'
The three siblings are frustrated after the four-day trial.
"There was no closure for the family," Kevin Jones said. "It's still an open wound for myself and my siblings."
Kevin Jones said they still want someone to be held accountable for their brother's death.
"We have to still try to find some avenue to bring someone to justice," Kevin Jones said. "Twenty-five years later, my brother is still in the grave."
Similar to his siblings, Kevin Jones expressed how the agony will continue for the family until the case is solved.
"We're still yet having to deal with being tormented with the results of the murder and the trial," Kevin Jones said. "When we heard the not-guilty verdict it was like all the air just got sucked out of the room."
The three siblings agreed, saying they were satisfied with the state's handling of the case during the trial, however, they're now looking at other routes to bring Michelle Ashley to justice as she can't be tried on double jeopardy, Kevin Jones said.
"We have to go down another road and try to find some avenue to hold someone accountable," Kevin Jones emphasized. "We just need resolve because our mother left this life without resolve."
The siblings requested to meet with the two investigators years back, but those attempts weren't successful, Veronica Jones said.
"They passed us and never said a word as they walked out of the courtroom," Jones-Adams said.
Open wounds
The three, of 11 siblings total, are now back to square one.
"The prosecution worked the information they were provided and presented to the best of their ability," Jones Green said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to convince a jury of 12. Although the verdict was not guilty, in our opinion that doesn't exonerate Michelle Jackson from her participation with the setting up of the robbery, which resulted in the death of our brother."
Over the years, Kevin Jones said different relatives have asked the siblings if they were afraid to drive down to Fort Myers and seek justice.
"We told them, 'Hell no.' Because we could not and cannot fail our brother," Jones-Adams said. "We promised him that. Even though he can't hear us, we promise that we will fight until justice was served."
Jones-Adams said the siblings at one point believed they'd never get to Aug. 29, referring to Ashley's murder trial's start date.
"And because of our brother being in the grave and not with us, that gave us the strength to follow through," Jones-Adams said.
In 2019, after an appointment with Fort Myers police, Kevin Jones said they all drove to the location of the now-gone Tides Motel.
"We all stood out there and just took a moment," Kevin Jones said. "I was able to talk to my brother there in the universe to tell him, 'You're not forgotten ... You're not left behind.'"
Jones-Adams added that Keith Jones would've done the same for his siblings if the script flipped.
"If it was any one of us lying in our grave for the same reason he is, he would be fighting the same for us," Jones-Adams said.
Jones Green said their brother's presence in a gentlemen's club had nothing to do with his murder.
"We all make choices," Jones Green said. "We all have done some things that we probably shouldn't have done or should have known, but that's no reason to question that. Don't judge him because of where he was and what he did. He was still a human being."
The siblings also hinted at Barry Lewis never taking notes on a two-hour interview with Ashley 25 years ago.
"We know who you are, perpetrators, and we're going to fight to make sure you're brought to justice," Jones-Adams said. "We should never allow fear."
Jones Green added that the siblings aren't fearful, but are careful.
"If they wanted the money, all they had to do was ask for it in exchange for his life, since that's what they said they were there for," Kevin Jones said. "He would have freely and willfully given up every dime if they allowed him to walk out of the room."
The siblings said Keith Jones' memory will live on.
"He was a veteran of the Marines and his goal was to be a police officer to become what he really wanted to be," Jones Green said. "He didn't even get a chance to have a family and children, so it's heartbreaking."
Jones-Adams said she wants their brother to be remembered as an aspiring law enforcement officer who loved his family.
"What these people took from us was priceless," Jones-Adams said. "It can never, ever replace him being here now."
Fort Myers Police response
"We empathize with the Jones family," Kristin Capuzzi, spokesperson for the Fort Myers Police Department, wrote in a statement. "The not guilty verdict was disappointing for FMPD as well."
Capuzzi added that when Keith Jones' case was reopened in 2018 at the request of Chief Derrick Diggs, the new investigators put everything they had to get the case where the State Attorney’s Office agreed to charge Michelle Ashley for her alleged role.
"We could not change the past or what was done initially in the investigation; we only sought to move it forward and we did," Capuzzi wrote.
Fort Myers Police continue to search for additional leads in Keith Jones' murder.
"There are several other individuals who played a part in this horrific crime who need to be brought to justice," Capuzzi wrote.
Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Slain Marine veteran siblings speak up following not guilty verdict
