Dad wants mercy in 5 kids deaths; prosecutor calls for death

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — If jurors are unsure whether a South Carolina father should get the death penalty for killing his five children, a prosecutor says they should just consider the five garbage bags where he left their bodies in rural Alabama.

Solicitor Rick Hubbard told a jury Thursday that 37-year-old Timothy Jones Jr. deserves to be executed instead of getting life in prison, which Hubbard said would be like sending “Timmy to his room.”

Defense attorney Casey Secor asked jurors to punish Jones severely with life without parole, but show compassion for his family so they don’t endure any more death.

The same Lexington County jury that convicted Jones of five counts of murder for killing his children , ages 1 to 8, in August 2014 will deliberate his sentence.