Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney

Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit

Sherry Boston, District Attorney

LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR SERIAL RAPIST CONVICTED OF MOLESTING FIVE-YEAR OLD CHILD IN NEW CASE

January 27, 2017

Decatur, Ga.- A convicted rapist will spend life behind bars following a new conviction for child molestation. DeKalb County jurors returned guilty verdicts Wednesday against 61-year-old Joseph Timothy Jones on three counts of Child Molestation for abusing a five-year-old child visiting his home.

The incident happened in June 2014 in the Defendant’s Decatur home. Defendant Jones invited the victim into his bed and began kissing and fondling the child while warning her, “don’t tell nobody.” The victim later disclosed the incident to relatives who were suspicious because of the defendant’s extensive criminal history.

Jones was convicted of three separate rapes in the late 1970’s that included kidnapping and weapons charges. Two years after being released from prison in 1989 for those crimes, Jones raped another woman and later pled guilty. After his release from prison for that case in 1997, Defendant Jones was charged with child molestation and later convicted and sentenced to prison once more. Two years following his release for that crime, Jones molested the child in this recent case. He denied touching the victim. Jurors rejected that claim.

Following his conviction this week, Defendant Jones was sentenced to life without parole by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge J.P. Boulee, who presided over the case.

Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Harold Buckler, assigned to the Crimes Against Children Unit prosecuted the case, with assistance from DA Investigator Crispin Henry. Detective J.K. Dargon of the DeKalb County Police Department led the initial investigation.