(Left to right): Perish Tyus and Jermis Jones (Office of the District Attorney General for the 28th Judicial District of Tennessee).
A man in Tennessee has learned his fate for shooting the mother of his child as she was dropping their 4-year-old off at the home of the man's mother.
Jermis Jones, 44, was sentenced in Haywood County Circuit Court on Monday to life in prison plus 34 years after being convicted of the first-degree murder of Perish Tyus, the Office of the District Attorney General for the 28th Judicial District of Tennessee announced.
The defendant's jury trial lasted just two days in November before he was found guilty of the murder charge, as well as attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, being a felon in possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, and retaliation for past action.
On Dec. 18, 2022, Tyus — whose age is unclear — was dropping off her 4-year-old son that she shared with Jones "at the paternal grandmother's residence" while the defendant "laid in wait," authorities recounted. Tyus was in the driver's seat of her vehicle with her cousin in the passenger seat and her child was in the back in his car seat.
Jones approached the vehicle and shot Tyus four times, "immediately killing her," the prosecutorial agency added. A bullet struck the passenger side of the vehicle, and one more "was found lodged in the door next to" the child's car seat.
Authorities did not mention the cousin or child being physically hurt.
Jones then fled the area, got rid of the gun he'd used, "and hid in a carport storage closet" where he was arrested, the DA's office said, noting that "he made threats to the responding officers." The defendant has also been convicted of three drug felonies.
"Our hearts again go out to Ms. Tyus's family[,] this was a senseless, violent, act by an ex-domestic partner," said 28th Judicial District Attorney General Frederick H. Agee. "Unless Mr. Jones gets some relief at the Court of the Appeals, he will never walk as a free man again and the community is safer for that."