Muscogee County District Attorney Mark Jones was indicted this week on charges of bribery, influencing a witness, violation of oath by a public officer, attempted violation of oath by a public officer, and attempted subordination of perjury. He now faces the possibility of being suspended for the duration of the proceedings, but Georgia law requires that a three man commission be appointed by the governor first.
The charges stem from several events that took place this year. They include accusations that Jones attempted to influence the testimony of Corporal Sherman Hayes in July by asking him to tell a grand jury that he thought a murder victim was cheating on the prime suspect for the purpose of establishing motive. That act formed the basis of counts 1-3 of the indictment for influencing a witness, attempted subordination of perjury, and violation of oath by a public officer. In March, Jones is accused of offering Assistant District Attorneys Sheneka Jones Terry and Kimberly Schwartz, $1,000 each to do specific things in or obtain specific results from cases they were working on. Those acts formed the basis of counts 4-7 which included two counts of bribery and two counts of violation of oath by a public officer. Also in March, Jones is accused of using a threat and engaging in misleading conduct to prevent a witness from testifying via a victim impact impact statement. That act formed the basis of counts 8 and 9 of the indictment for influencing a witness and violation of oath by a public officer.
Jones was already facing two felony charges at the time of his indictment. Last year while campaigning for District Attorney there was an incident at a civic center during the taping of a campaign video that resulted in one of the charges. We found that video on Facebook in which a rapper is telling people to go out and vote for Mark Jones and it includes aerial footage of cars doing donuts (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=837506603429162). 'Apparently at least one vehicle was damaged and Jones now faces a felony charge as a result. In 2019, Jones received his second DUI since 2015 and this time he was charged with a felony because the incident involved an accident in which at least one person was injured (https://www.wrbl.com/news/local-news/da-candidate-mark-jones-has-two-dui-arrests-since-2015/). Despite these problems Jones was still qualified to run for office and won because technically they are pending matters that have yet to yield convictions capable of disqualifying someone from running for elected office.
According to public records, Mark Preston Jones is a 40 year old resident of Columbus, Georgia. We found an additional arrest record with an accompanying mugshot (see image above) from 2003 for public intoxication (booking number 5103 and prisoner number 03-45285). He also appears to have used the email address markpjones[at]hotmal.com to create social media accounts.