By admin 
Jaleel Jones got up before dawn on March 24, 2021, to go to work as a plumber. The 25-year-old father of a daughter gave a neighbor a ride to a Rock Hill convenience store, but he never made it to work.
Read more SC woman charged with lottery fraud after redeeming nearly 100 stolen tickets
The neighbor, Nathan Jarrod Thomas, shot Jones several times in the head, police and prosecutors say. Thomas stole the Charger Jones was driving, slammed into a fire hydrant, then dumped Jones’ body out of the car on a side street near Interstate 77 and Celanese Road. He drove away.
Thomas then called the police to say he had just shot a man and where to find the body. Eight miles away, deputies found Thomas driving on two flat tires. The car’s interior was covered in blood.
But Thomas, 38, will not go to prison. Thursday in York County criminal court, testimony showed Thomas was mentally incompetent at the time of the crime and did not know right from wrong at the time he killed Jones. Visiting Judge Eugene Griffith ruled Thomas was not guilty by reason of insanity.
Thomas claimed people were out to get him
Thomas confessed to police about the shooting and stealing the car. But he also claimed to police he was targeted by Jones and others unnamed in a vast conspiracy of people out to get him and spy on him.
He told police people blamed him for the COVID pandemic and over 100 murders in Charlotte, Rock Hill Police Department Sgt. Eric Olson testified Thursday. Olson described the statements in court as “manic” and erratic.
There was no previous bad blood or problems between the two neighbors before Thomas shot Jones, Olson testified.
Shortly after his arrest, Thomas was tested for competency. South Carolina Department of Mental Health doctors repeatedly found him incompetent to stand trial, testimony showed. He has received medication and treatment since.
Earlier this year he was found competent to understand what is happening now, according to testimony and his lawyer, Mark McKinnon of the York County Public Defender’s Office. But for years, including at the time of the killing, Thomas was not competent, testimony showed.
“Mr. Thomas was not even competent until this year to even be in a courtroom,” McKinnon said in court.
Thomas did not speak in court Thursday. He was brought to court in shackles by state hospital guards.
Read more A winning lottery game sold at a Columbia convenience store. Check your tickets
Prosecutors John Anthony and Leslie Robinson did not dispute the findings that Thomas was not competent at the time of the killing. So Thursday’s hearing was held to have Griffith hear the facts and rule on the not guilty by reason of insanity verdict.
Thomas will remain in a secure South Carolina state hospital until a treatment plan is offered to the court for review, prosecutors said after court. Only a judge’s court order could allow Thomas to be released. There would likely be more court hearings if state mental health officials ever determine he is ready to be released.
The case is the second York County homicide in recent years in which the suspect was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Jimar Neely remains in state hospital custody after killing Timothy Barber and Robbin Thompson in 2019. A judge denied Neely’s release from a state hospital last year after prosecutors argued Neely was a threat to public safety if released.
Mother: “We carry him in our hearts every day.”
Family and friends of Jones packed one side of the courtroom Thursday. They came from several states to show support. They wore ribbons with his name on it. When Olson testified Thursday about the brutality of the killing in 2021, some of Jones’ family got so emotional they had to leave the courtroom.
Unlike a court hearing where there is a sentence in a plea, or a guilty verdict in a trial, Jones’ family did not speak in court.Many of them wept.
Afterward, outside the courtroom, Jones’ father, Jamie White, his mother, Tameka White, and the mother of his daughter, Morgan Myers, spoke to The Herald about Jones and how the man who shot him will not go to prison.
“We carry him in our hearts every day,” Tameka White said of Jones.
She described her son as a family man who worked hard and did all the right things. She called the details of the crime “heartbreaking.”
The court decision has been difficult for the family.
“It does still feel like we did not get justice,” White said.
She said she does not fear for her family’s safety if Thomas is ever released, but worries about the safety of the community. She said it is “not fair” to anyone else to have to deal with such a violent crime.
Nothing is going to bring back her son, but White said she will continue to oppose Thomas being released.
“Our fight continues; no one else has to suffer the way we are suffering now,” White said.
Read more A winning lottery game sold at a Columbia convenience store. Check your tickets