ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
The inmate who sent a letter threatening Botetourt County Sheriff Reed Kelly and his family with rape and mutilation told investigators he just wanted to see if Kelly really opened his mail, according to court testimony Tuesday.
Jason Joseph Jones pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to sending the letter.
Kelly testified that he received the letter Oct. 11. When investigators asked Jones if he sent the letter, Kelly said, Jones told them that other inmates in the Botetourt County Jail had told him Kelly never read letters from inmates. Jones said he wanted to see if it was true.
Kelly was asked to read the letter into evidence but declined, saying it was too vulgar for a group of Botetourt Intermediate School students visiting the courtroom.
"I don't think I would have read it [even] if those kids hadn't been there," Kelly said after the trial.
The letter, signed "J.J'' and full of misspellings and grammatical mistakes, described in detail how the author would torture and kill Kelly and his family, including his new baby and his parents.
"Redd Kelly I Can't Wight. Till I Get out of Jail or prison one or the other," the letter ends.
Jones accused Kelly of assaulting him in the jail the same day Kelly received the letter. A Botetourt grand jury heard the results of a state police investigation of the claim last month and declined to indict Kelly.
Kelly has said he confronted Jones in the jail, but he denied assaulting him.
Jones was in the county jail on charges of stealing more than $2,000 worth of tools from a Bell Atlantic truck and of setting fire to a broken-down car. He pleaded guilty to those charges Tuesday, as well.
Jones is scheduled to be sentenced June 13. He could receive up to five years for sending the letter.
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