J'can woman, four children die in suspected murder-suicide, arson

AP & Observer reports

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

NEW YORK, USA — A Jamaican single mother and her teenage son apparently ingested some type of drug before dying in a suspected murder-suicide and arson that claimed the lives of three other children in their New York City apartment, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Pills were found in the stomachs of Leisa Jones and the teen — both considered suspects in the gruesome deaths — during autopsies last week, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because further tests on their causes of death were pending.

The preliminary findings deepened the mystery surrounding a case that was briefly believed to be an accidental fire before becoming a homicide investigation.

The New York Police Department said in a statement Monday that there still was "no final determination as to who was responsible".

Firefighters responding early Thursday at the family's Staten Island home, found the charred bodies of Jones and two daughters, ages seven and 10, in a front room, and that of her 14-year-old son, CJ, slumped over a bed in a back bedroom. A two-year-old son, pulled out alive, died later at the hospital of smoke inhalation.

Later that day, police said the throats of the two girls and CJ had been slashed. They also said a razor had been found under CJ's body and that he had a history of playing with fire, making them theorise he might have killed his family, set the blaze and cut his own throat.

Since then, police have determined that a badly damaged, fragmented note with the words "am sorry" that was found in another room was written by Jones. The significance of the note was unclear, but that discovery — combined with the initial drug evidence — has led to suspicions she may have killed her children.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said that the note's handwriting matched a diary found in the Jones' Staten Island apartment. He said police believe both were written by Leisa Jones.

A document search, meanwhile, turned up three legal filings connected to Jones.

In New York, she was named as the debtor in a filing in civil court. The filing date was in February, and the amount was for $6,580.

In Washington, DC, she was listed as the debtor in landlord/tenant dispute that was filed in November 2008. She was also named as the debtor in a July 2000 filing in which the creditor was the now-closed DC General Hospital. The amount was $2,355.83.

Jones' mother, Marcia Anderson, declined to comment Monday when contacted by The Associated Press.

Anderson told The New York Times, "My grandson is not a killer and my daughter is not a killer. She could never harm her babies."

In the meantime, the 14-year-old's father, Earlston Raymond, has maintained that his son — who was initially fingered as the main suspect -- could not have committed the crime.

Raymond, who spoke with the Observer from his home in Red Hills, St Andrew Saturday, said if he could turn back the hands of time, his only son would have been here with him in Jamaica, instead of a morgue somewhere in New York.

Raymond, a 39-year-old mechanic, said that on numerous occasions the teen would complain to him about the way he was being treated by his 33-year-old mother.

Sitting in an unfinished section of his home as he spoke to the Observer, Raymond said he had asked Jones to send home his son, who had been in the US for over six years.

"I use to tell her to send home the youth because I'm a tradesman and he can learn a skill," said Raymond.

"But she wouldn't send him. She would spank him and take away his phone," he alleged.

He said, too, that his son wanted to move back home.

"Boy, it hurt me fi know how de youth just dead so," said Raymond.

With an expression of bewilderment and grief etched on his face, Raymond said his son loved his siblings and that he was an even-tempered youth who would not easily get upset.

Now Raymond has only one desire, which he did not hesitate to share.

"Regardless of my son being dead and gone, I just want them to clear his name," he said.

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J'can woman, four children die in suspected murder-suicide, arson