THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210318
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, CINDY CLAYTON AND LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 152 lines
If it weren't so tragic, it would read like an Agatha Christie play.
A prominent psychiatrist who has been behaving strangely and has separated from his wife is arrested, accused of stalking another woman.
Meanwhile, around Mother's Day, his wife disappears. Then, a decomposing body is found in the expensive waterfront home they once shared.
All three - the doctor, his wife and the stalked woman - are linked by their fine acting and singing in light musical comedy and opera.
But truth is stranger than fiction, and what happened in Norfolk this weekend would never have made the playwright's final draft: The doctor escapes from an electronic home-arrest device he wears while awaiting trial on the stalking charge. He returns to his home, where the decomposing body has been for a week, to cut the grass.
There, he is arrested and charged with murder.
But the story is not fictional. A real psychiatrist - Tobin J. Jones, 36 - is behind bars, charged with the murder of ``Jane Doe.''
His wife - Megan Jones, 43 - is missing. A second woman, whose name is not being used because she says she was stalked, is helping investigators sort out what happened.
Jones, the medical director of Norfolk's Community Services Board, was arrested at his former home in Colonial Place at 743 Delaware Ave. early Saturday after police found the body of a white woman wrapped in blankets in a second-floor bedroom.
The body has not been identified, but officials have ordered dental records, presumably of Jones' wife, for comparison.
The wife has been missing about a week, the same amount of time police believe the unidentified body has been in the house.
Jones, who has been on leave from the Community Services Board since March, said Monday through his attorney, Stanley Sacks, that he intends to plead not guilty to murder. Police would not say why they arrested Jones, who apparently made no statements.
Details emerged Monday of a woman who accused Jones of breaking into her apartment and stalking her since March.
It remains unclear what, if any, connection that case may have to the murder, but the timing of events overlaps.
Jones received a certified letter from the woman on May 13 - the same day police believe the murder occurred - asking him to stop bothering her.
Jones had stalked her since March 30, breaking into her Ghent apartment on May 2 while she was home, she told police. Last Tuesday, May 14, after Jones allegedly showed up again, the woman filed charges.
``Tobin Jones has sent unwanted gifts, cards and letters to my residence,'' the woman wrote in a criminal complaint. ``He has appeared on my property uninvited. . . he was told . . . to cease all forms of contact.''
On Wednesday, Jones was arrested. Jail officials said he was so uncooperative, rude and argumentative that a magistrate ordered him held without bond and a judge found him in contempt of court and ordered him jailed for 10 days.
After Jones appealed the charge, he was released Friday on home arrest. The next morning at about 9, Jones thwarted the computerized monitoring system set up in his new home in the 1700 block of Longwood Drive in Edgewater.
He returned to his former home in Colonial Place, where he was taken into custody while mowing the grass.
Members of the local theater scene were stunned by the news that three of their colleagues were involved. All three - Jones, his wife and the stalked woman - were respected performers.
David L. Burton, artistic director of the Little Theatre of Norfolk, said Megan Jones, who ran the costume department, has been one of most dependable, vital members of the staff.
In the play ``Murder by Misadventure,'' Megan Jones played the wife of a mystery author involved in a murder. A Virginian-Pilot reviewer wrote of her performance, ``Jones gives a performance that combines finesse and force most effectively. . . . The subtlety of her acting only becomes apparent late in the show, when all the double-crosses . . . are finally resolved.''
Tobin Jones, who is over 6 feet tall, about 185 pounds with blue eyes and black hair, got equally good reviews as an actor and singer with Commonwealth Musical Stage in Virginia Beach. He also performed with the Virginia Opera in Norfolk.
Last month during rehearsals and performances of ``My Fair Lady,'' fellow performers noted a dramatic personality change in Jones.
He went from being cooperative, professional and gentle to being habitually late for rehearsals and ``incredibly rebellious,'' said Commonwealth's producing director, Jeff Meredith.
In one performance, Jones walked on stage in a tuxedo but without shoes or socks. When confronted, Jones ``calmly smiled and said, `Oh, it was just a choice I made,' '' Meredith said.
Another time, Meredith said, Jones told everyone that shirt pockets were ``not essential,'' so he ripped them off all his shirts. When asked to explain, he said `I'm just simplifying my life,' '' Meredith said. ``He said, `By the way, Megan and I have separated.' It seemed very inconsequential. Like, `Oh by the way, I'm having a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.' ''
Still, Meredith said, no one seemed threatened by him.
Jones earned his medical degree in New Mexico in 1986. He was hired by the Community Services Board in 1991, becoming medical director in 1994. He went on leave in March and is no longer paid. Officials with the board declined to comment. Monday, because of the investigation, he was suspended from staff privileges at the Chowan Hospital in Edenton, N.C., where he was medical director of the psychiatric unit before coming to Norfolk.
The woman who was allegedly stalked has credits in popular musicals, opera, and classical recitals.
Jail officials sought to protect her as they released Jones on the stalking charge, they said Monday. In addition to the home monitoring device attached to Jones' leg, a device was added to set off an alarm inside the woman's home if he got within three blocks.
Authorities believe Jones may have slipped out of the bracelet-type device. If cut, alarms are supposed to be triggered, said Michael P. O'Toole of Community Corrections.
O'Toole said the electronic monitoring system has been used on 536 people in 10 years. Jones was only the second to escape, he said.
Officials left Jones at his home on Longwood Drive about 8 p.m. Friday. He apparently left about 9 a.m. Saturday and was taken into custody at the Delaware Avenue home a short time later while working in the yard.
Monday, the interrupted work was still apparent. A rake stood propped against a bench. A push broom was next to a pile of debris on a brick patio.
The beauty of the property overlooking docked sailboats on the Lafayette River - with roses, a small white picket fence and fish pond - was in stark contrast to Jones' new home on Longwood Drive. Also near the water, the new house is a red brick ranch with wrought-iron porch posts and aluminum awning.
The only sign of tragedy at the Delaware Avenue home Monday was a single sprig from a flowering tree that someone had propped against the front door.
Meanwhile, friends of Megan Jones refuse to believe their friend is dead. Keith Flippen, who directed Megan Jones in ``The Good Doctor,'' is one.
``She was - no, is, that's what I'm going to assume - is a very kind spirit,'' Flippen said. MEMO: Staff writers Tony Wharton and Marc Davis contributed to this
story. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photo
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
LAST MONDAY: Dr. Tobin Jones receives a certified letter from an
actress he knows, asking him to stop contacting her. The woman says
Jones has been sending unsolicited gifts, cards and letters to her.
The same day, police believe Jones kills an unidentified woman. The
body remains in Jones' house for five days.
TUESDAY: The actress says Jones appears on her property uninvited
at 7 p.m. She files a criminal complaint against Jones, claiming he
has stalked her from March 30 to May 14. An arrest warrant is
issued.
WEDNESDAY: Police arrest Jones for stalking and other charges. He
is held without bail.
THURSDAY: Jones appears in General District Court. He is so
uncooperative that the judge charges him with contempt of court. The
same day, Norfolk police receive a report from Megan Jones' family
in Oklahoma that she might be missing.
FRIDAY: Jones is released, ordered to wear an electronic
monitoring device.
SATURDAY: Police find a decomposing body in Jones' home in
Colonial Place when they investigate a missing persons report. Jones
is questioned.
SUNDAY: Jones is arrested, charged with murder.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST MISSING PERSONS
STALKING by CNB