THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220249
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 57 lines
A judge delayed a decision Friday on whether to release the body of murder victim Megan Jones to her family or allow her husband - charged with her murder - to seek further testing on her body to determine the cause of death.
In a hearing Friday morning, Circuit Court Judge Marc Jacobson said quick resolution was imperative for the parents of Megan Jones, who have been waiting for their daughter's body for five weeks.
``This situation is not going to remain,'' Jacobson said in Circuit Court, responding to the family's fear that the legal battle could go on indefinitely. ``That's not right, and that's not going to occur.''
Jacobson ruled late Friday that before making a final decision, he needs more information, including input from prosecutors in the case. He called for another hearing early next week.
The family of Megan Jones asked the court to order the body released after Tobin Jones refused to sign release forms required by the funeral home, and private entreaties by the family failed to change Jones' mind.
Jones, a psychiatrist who denies killing his wife, contends that cuts to her head - determined by the medical examiner to be the result of blunt force trauma - would not have caused death. He wants independent drug testing done on the body.
Megan Jones was killed around Mother's Day. She was found about a week later wrapped in a rug in an upstairs bedroom of her Delaware Avenue home. After doing an autopsy, the Medical Examiner's Office released the body to a local funeral home.
The family's attorney, Philip R. Farthing, said Friday that enough blood and body tissue was kept for added testing and there was no need to keep the body.
``In the name of common decency and respect for the dead, it's a disgrace that we had to come here and publicly make this request,'' Farthing told the judge.
But Tobin Jones' attorney, Stanley Sacks, disagreed.
``We are not unmindful of the emotional concerns,'' Sacks told the judge.
``We want decency too. . . . But this is not an unjustified or unreasonable request.
``If prosecutors can't determine the cause of death, we'd like to try on our own. . . . They have not eliminated the possibility of suicide or accident. We must complete the tests before they cremate the body.''
But Farthing said Jones has had five weeks since his wife's body was discovered to arrange testing.
``We will be victorious,'' he said after Friday's hearing. ``The judge may not rule today, but I believe he will put a deadline, maybe next week, and at least bring closure for the family.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
ABOUT THE DEATH
Megan Jones was killed around Mother's Day. She was found about a
week later wrapped in a rug in an upstairs bedroom of her Delaware
Avenue home.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST INVESTIGATION by CNB