Prosecutors said Carrie Jones pushed Jason Jones toward the first killing in a night that left four people dead.
HARTINGTON, Neb. — On Friday, Jason Jones was sentenced to death after prosecutors said a grievance first voiced by his wife, Carrie Jones, grew into the murder of four neighbors in Laurel in August 2022.
The sentence came after two trials built around different questions. Jason Jones’ trial focused on who pulled the trigger, set fires and killed four people. Carrie Jones’ trial focused on whether she helped set the violence in motion and then hid what happened. Together, the cases formed the state’s account of a household conflict that moved from complaints and threats to shootings, arson and a capital sentence. Jason Jones is now headed into an automatic death penalty appeal. Carrie Jones is serving life in prison.
Carrie Jones told investigators that Gene Twiford had verbally harassed her for years. Prosecutors said she described him as a daily problem and grew furious over what she viewed as inappropriate comments. Investigators found that Twiford had a reputation for bothering people and had been asked to leave some local places. That point became part of the record, but it did not change the central charge. The state said Carrie Jones turned anger into pressure on her husband. In one statement to investigators, she said the situation had to stop or she would kill Twiford herself.
The evidence against Carrie Jones included messages and testimony about threats before the killings. Prosecutors said text messages showed Carrie and Jason Jones discussing violence against Twiford months before August 2022. They also said that on Aug. 3, the day before the murders, Carrie Jones pointed a loaded gun at her husband and held a knife to his throat during a fight. She told him to take care of the problem or she would, according to testimony. Jason Jones later described her in court as “a very difficult woman.” Her defense argued the words were anger, not a command to kill.
By the next morning, prosecutors said, Jason Jones had acted. He entered the Twiford home on Elm Street with a pry bar and shot Gene Twiford twice. Janet Twiford, 85, and Dana Twiford, 55, were also inside. Prosecutors said Jason Jones killed both women after he encountered them, then set the house on fire. Gene Twiford was 86. The state said the first killing may have been the one tied most directly to Carrie Jones’ grievance, but the attack did not stop there. The presence of Janet and Dana Twiford turned one planned confrontation, as prosecutors described it, into three murders in one home.
Jason Jones then went to the home of Michele Ebeling, 53, prosecutors said. Ebeling lived near the Jones home, and Carrie Jones had complained that she was strange and stared at her from across the street. Prosecutors said Jason Jones shot Ebeling and set that home on fire as well. The record does not place Ebeling inside the dispute over Gene Twiford’s comments. Her death showed how far the violence spread from the first grievance described in court. It also became one of the facts that made Jason Jones eligible for the death penalty: four victims, two homes and crimes committed in a short span.
After the fires, Carrie Jones became part of the investigation in a different way. She told investigators she saw an orange glow from the Ebeling home when she returned to Laurel from work. She said she saw Jason Jones stumble out badly burned, with skin she later described as “melting” and “gooey.” Rather than call for medical help, she helped him inside, put him in a bath and tried to bandage him with strips of clothing. Prosecutors said she knew that treatment would draw attention to the source of the burns. Officers later found Jason Jones inside her home, near death and moving in and out of consciousness.
Prosecutors said Carrie Jones also deleted messages, threw out burned clothing and lied during repeated contacts with law enforcement. At one point, jurors in her case saw video of Laurel Police Chief Ron Lundahl speaking with her on her porch while Jason Jones was inside the house with severe burns. In a later recorded call, she told an officer that Jason would not answer the phone or door because he was burned up. Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Sandra Allen told jurors that even if Carrie Jones did not pull the trigger, she “pulled the strings” that led to Gene Twiford’s death.
Carrie Jones’ defense pushed back against that picture. Her lawyers argued the state had shown a woman upset by harassment, worn down by problems in her marriage and angry at her husband, not someone who directed a murder. They said venting and provocation were not the same as aiding and abetting. The jury convicted her in August 2025 of aiding and abetting first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and being an accessory to a felony. In November 2025, she received life in prison for the murder conviction and an additional 21 to 30 years on the other counts.
The record also separated motive from legal responsibility. Prosecutors did not have to show Carrie Jones wanted all four victims dead to convict her in Gene Twiford’s killing, and Jason Jones’ sentence did not depend on proving Carrie Jones controlled every act. The state instead linked her grievance to the first attack, then traced how Jason Jones expanded the violence and tried to erase the evidence through fire.
Jason Jones’ own case moved on a separate schedule. A jury convicted him in September 2024 of 10 counts, including four counts of first-degree murder, four firearm counts and two arson counts. Prosecutors said DNA and ballistics tied him to the crime scenes. The defense did not focus on denying that he killed the victims. It argued that he acted during an episode of mental illness. Jurors found aggravating factors that made a death sentence possible. A three-judge panel then had to decide whether those factors outweighed mitigation and justified execution under Nebraska law.
On Friday, District Court Judge Bryan Meismer read the panel’s order in Cedar County District Court. Judges Timothy Burns and Patrick Heng joined him on the panel. Jones declined to speak and did not visibly react when the sentence was announced. Meismer called the murders “terrible, despicable, and unforgiving.” Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said the panel had laid out the details and explained why the sentence fit the law. Defense attorney Todd Lancaster said the defense likely will challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty in the automatic appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court.
The sentencing brought the two cases back together in public memory. Carrie Jones’ complaints supplied the motive prosecutors used for the first killing. Jason Jones’ actions produced four deaths and two fires. The legal question now moves to appeal, where the state’s capital sentence will be reviewed. As of May 4, 2026, Jason Jones remains sentenced to death, while Carrie Jones remains imprisoned for life.
That distinction shaped the final sentence: one spouse was punished for aiding one murder, while the other was sentenced for the full chain of killings.
Author note: Last updated May 4, 2026.