The evil father of 7-year-old Adrian Jones was given a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison today in a courtroom in Kansas City. His face showed no emotion.
Ryan Jones, who was seven years old, never had a chance in life. If the system ever failed a child…I have never read a story about the k*illing and/or abu*se of a child that was more horrifying than this one.
Adrian’s father, Micheal Jones, and the boy’s stepmother, Heather Jones (she says she was “forced” to abu*se the boy), were both given life sentences for murdering this little boy. However, I don’t think that’s nearly enough justice for what they did to him.
To truly punish them, they would have to do the same thing to another baby over the same amount of time. They both deserve to die slowly and in a lot of pain. I can think of a few old ways to torture them that would work.
He was the fifth of his mother’s six children and the first of his father’s three children.
Ten calls to CPS were made about this child in one year, from Kansas to Missouri.
The mother was the subject of the first call. Adrian’s older sister said that not only did their mother not care for them, but she also treated them badly and there was a chance that she was high. It was also possible that the boy had been raped or se*xually abu*sed, since his sister said that a man slept in his room and played with him behind closed doors.
Adrian and two other siblings were taken from her care because she was neglecting them. Adrian was then given to his father to care for when he was three years old. At some point, he was given back to his mother to care for before being given back to his father to care for.
Everything was caught on video from 32 cameras around the house, which was used as proof.
Adrian’s life was worst in the last five months.
The first call to CPS was to the Jones family. The second call was more for the other kids in the house than for Adrian, but he was checked out when CPS came to the house. The phone call was made because one of the kids had lost a lot of weight. CPS said he looked like he wasn’t getting enough food.
Heather Jones called CPS three times after taking her two-year-old daughter to the emergency room because she said she had a seizure. It didn’t happen like this. The child had internal bleeding and a lot of bruises around her head when the doctor checked her out. When he asked her about it, she said that Adrian, who was there at the time, pushed her down the stairs, but the doctor said that didn’t explain what he saw.
What she said next changed. She said Adrian hit the girl over the head with a wooden rod because he “acts out when his dad isn’t around.”
He’s still three years old, people.
Adrian has a black eye, which the doctor sees. It makes sense that the doctor would ask, “What happened to his eye?”
She told him that his dad hit him because he had wet his pants.
After making a complaint to the Department of Children’s Services, the hospital calls the house to follow up. An officer was sent there to do so. Officer Wall (Whall?) from the Topeka Police Department.
Adrian told the police officer that his dad Michael hit and pushed him because of something he did or said. That kids from two to ten years old blamed him for what happened to them. “It sounded like he was dying,” the 10-year-old told the police officer about hearing Heather choke Adrian in the bathroom at night.
The person under the ten-year-old said Heather only hurts them because Adrian and his two sisters aren’t hers. According to what the officer told the social worker, Adrian was hit with a closed fist. The officer also said that Adrian was SAFE where he was.
They left the kids where they were and wrote all of this down in a file.
CPS/DCFS talked to the father, Michael, and the sisters about where they went to school without their parents being there.
The kids told them. They get punched in the stomach and bottom by Michael, who hits them on the legs with his hand. They also told CPS that Heather only hits and kicks Adrian, even when he doesn’t have shoes on. They said she has pushed him down and hit him with anything she could find without any reason.
Heather told CPS what they told them, and all she did was cry and say she would never hurt the kids.
Adrian was marked as having a HIGH RISK OF AB*USE, but his home was thought to be safe.
I don’t understand how this makes any sense. It’s not safe for him if he’s at high risk. Doesn’t that kind of make the point…?
After Heather’s kids went to the doctor, CPS took them away because they were being abu*sed, and they went to live with Heather’s grandmother.
Before the police arrived, CPS also called Michael Jones. He said he wasn’t home when the alleged punching happened, Heather was crazy and high on drugs, and he didn’t hit Adrian.
If that lie was true, why did he leave Adrian and the other kids with her when he knew she was “crazy and on drugs”?
But CPS told him that Heather had to leave and was no longer allowed to be with the kids. The kids could stay at the house. (This happened in December)
Adrian had been living with his dad for three months at this point.
Michael also had to sign a paper which said he would keep the kids safe by doing things like not hitting them and not talking to Heather.
Micheal told CPS in January that he and Heather were back together and that she could come back into the house.
The CPS did nothing.
A fourth call came in. Someone knew Heather was there and told the police that the family was living in filth and that the girls’ bottoms were bleeding from being hit so hard. Also, guns were said to be close enough for the kids to reach.
The social worker who answered the phone didn’t start an investigation right away, but they did start one in the end.
The kids were spanked by Michael, and CPS called Heather. She said the kids weren’t bleeding, but “if they were,” it was because of a skin condition.
Kansas CPS did nothing to remove Adrian or the others from the home, even though Heather was known to be abusing them.
Keep in mind that this is the same CPS office that took Adrian away from his mother for much less serious charges than Michael is facing.
Since there were no calls or reports for a year, let’s jump ahead to December 2012. It’s four years old.
Michael locked Adrian up in a mental hospital in 2012, saying that he had abu*sed his sisters and set fires, among other things. Many of the doctors he saw at the hospital told him he had PTSD.
Heather said it was from when he was with his real mother.
He took a Global Functioning Test (twice), which gives a score from 0 to 100. The purpose of this test is to see how well you can handle daily life. The first score was 55. The second one is a 24.
Adrian went to see his grandmother Jones for Christmas 2012. (Adrian’s older sister said in court that she was scared of Michael and couldn’t wait to be away from him. She also said she was scared for Adrian and her sister who was still there.)
Adrian will never see his grandmother or sister again.
Michael, Heather, and the kids moved to Missouri between December 2012 and March 2013.
March 4: Please call five. Adrian was said to have had to stand in a corner for hours so that no one would notice him. The people in charge made him do push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks for long periods of time. His bedroom door had locks on the outside, and he was setting fires.
The kids were taken out of school and taught at home by the “Jones Academy.” Now they had even less contact with people outside of their group.
When CPS got its fifth call, it was a level two emergency, which means it’s not an emergency at all. Not too fast, though—they can call or come out.
Caldwell, a social worker, went to the house and talked to Michael, Heather, and Adrian. When they talked to the boy, his father and stepmother were there. The boy told the social worker the truth about being locked up in his room and being ab*used in front of them.
Heather keeps talking over him to make excuses, like “he was locked in the bedroom for hurting his sisters.”
He told them they made him go hungry.
That’s what Heather said they did because “he eats everything.”
Also, CPS talked to the landlord and asked if they had seen the kids. The renter said he had never seen Adrian.
Missouri asked Kansas CPS for the record, but the investigation didn’t go anywhere, even though Heather was still not allowed to be in the house legally.
They met again on April 5th for a follow-up. She didn’t ask the boy if he had been abu*sed. Instead, she asked how he was getting used to his new home, even though he had a cut on his face.
It is CPS’s job to take pictures when they visit, but they didn’t.
They got the records on April 7th, and they all showed that Adrian and Heather Jones were abusing their children very badly at home. Once they had these records, they closed his case that same day. The supervisor signed off on it, and he was left at home.
In July, the sixth call came. Children were being abu*sed and neglected, and the police were called. Heather was “beating the living daylights out of the kids” and hitting them with things from around the house. The person who reported the claim also said they saw Heather use and sell meth, and they saw the kids being locked in a room or outside the house for hours.
As a side note, this call was a level 2. It was the same social worker and supervisor.
On July 8, a different social worker came to the house. Michael and Heather were there. They said Adrian wasn’t. Nine days later, on the 17th, the social worker comes back with two police officers to confirm that there are several guns in the house that the kids can reach.
When the social worker and the police arrive, Adrian is with his uncle, who at first doesn’t let them into the house. But the man let the police into the house after they told him there would be trouble if he didn’t.
He tells them all. “He kicks me in the back of the head sometimes, and one time a bone came out.” Dad hits me in the head and stomach all the time, and Mom pulls on my ears all the time. It hurts a lot. My mom and dad can’t feed me. I can’t sleep with a pillow or a blanket.” These are the words Adrian used. He also tells them that Heather hits him, throws him to the ground, and locks him in the bedroom or closet.
Heather and Michael are asked about what they were told when they get home during the interview. They say they didn’t do it, but they did lock him in the bedroom because they thought he was a bad kid. They said he was mean to his siblings and threatened to hurt them. They said he had been in the psych ward before and that the doctor would put him in there again.
The social worker suggested other ways to keep the kids safe and had all of them get a physical and x-rays.
The test was given the next day. The doctor said there were no signs of physical abu*se. I don’t know if they paid him off or if he wasn’t worth the paper his diploma was written on. The x-rays were not given to them.
The social worker said that Adrian might not be safe at home if he was left there alone. She said she was afraid Adrian would be targeted because Heather has a history of abusing children, even her own children.
Michael said the same day that it would be best if the State took Adrian.
The social worker also said that within minutes, a JV officer called and said that Adrian should stay in the home because of his mental health problems. The officer also said that Adrian’s parents were being “honest” when they said that they were locking him up and that it would be best for Adrian to stay in the home while the family gets extra help.
Adrian was rated as unsafe in four out of eleven areas, such as being in danger from a violent parent or caretaker. He wasn’t taken away.
In 2013, Adrian was left at the home even though the Missouri Welfare office couldn’t be sure he was safe.
Even though Michael and Heather took the extra services, they didn’t keep them for long, and they were no longer seen.
By the time Michael and Heather called Social Services again, they said they had moved back to Kansas. Without doing any more research, like going to the house to see if they were still there, the case was closed without checking the new address.
This was the eighth call. A hotline told Kansas Child Protective Services that Adrian’s medical and mental health needs were not being met on August 21, 2013.
Then, they go to the Jones family’s last known address and guess where they were…surprise, surprise…
Wheeler, the social worker, wrote down that he was a high-risk person after this visit, but she still left him in the house.
Let us now go to October. Even though there was a lot of evidence, Wheeler decided that the case should not be reopened. Her boss agrees with her decision.
Feb 2014. The ninth call: This person said that Adrian was being locked up and not getting medical care or playing with other kids. Once more, this is a level one response.
He was never taken out of the house and was always brought back in.
Micheal and Heather finally locked the boy in a small “cell” they made out of plywood in the shower of one of the bathrooms. He wasn’t let out again. He was locked up there for the last week of his life and then for two more weeks.
Michael and Heather bought pigs and deprived them of food because they thought the pigs would eat Michael. This plan didn’t work.
They hurt this boy in other horrible ways that I didn’t talk about in this article. Everything you need to know is out there if you want it.
As I already said, this is probably the worst case of child abu*se I have ever read about, and I’ve read a lot of horrible things. Sad to say, though, this is the worst.
Parents alone should not be blamed for the death of their son. There was no way to avoid it.
He did everything that was asked of him. The teacher heard him. He told the cops. He told the police. He told everyone who would listen what was going on, but nobody did anything.
Adults think that kids don’t know what they’re talking about or that they’re lying just because they’re kids, and we adults always believe them…
Listen to what a kid says if they say something like that.
Do somethin’.
You might be the only thing that can save that kid.
