Prosecutors: Baltimore County Father Shot Son Dead in Christmas Eve Attack; Defense Claims Shots Were Fired in Struggle For Gun

Officers responding to a report of shots fired on Christmas Eve morning in 2024 found a horrific scene in Apartment 1D on Breslin Court near Rosedale.

They opened a door decorated with a cheerful metallic pink holiday wreath, walked past a living room where a Christmas tree twinkled in the corner, and entered the main bedroom, where they found a mass-casualty scene.

Four people — including two small children — had been shot. A 4-year-old boy, Jacobi, was lying across the bed with a bullet wound to his head. He would later die from his injury. His 1-year-old sister was sitting up near him, crying. She had been shot in her right shoulder. His mother, who had run to an upstairs neighbor for help, had been shot in the back of the head. His father had a gunshot wound to his jaw.

All but Jacobi, a little boy who loved dinosaurs, Spider-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, survived their injuries. The father, 31-year-old Mark C. Jones Jr., was arrested at the scene.

Testimony in the trial began Tuesday.

Prosecutors say the children's mother, Promyss Marcelle, begged Jones to leave the apartment just minutes before he retrieved a handgun from a backpack and opened fire.

District Public Defender James Dills told jurors Tuesday there had been a struggle for the gun and police never properly investigated the case because they immediately assumed Jones was responsible.

Deputy State's Attorney Lisa Dever told jurors the shooting happened about ten hours after Marcelle had initially called police about a domestic dispute.

Marcelle and Jones had been arguing all night, Dever said.

Police testified that Marcelle wanted officers to make Jones leave. But because the dispute was verbal rather than physical, and because Jones said he had nowhere else to go, officers told the couple to stay in separate rooms and explained the process for obtaining peace orders.

Police body camera footage showed 4-year-old Jacobi calmly playing in the background as an officer spoke with his father in the child's bedroom.

One officer fist-bumped Jones and told him, "Just try to be peaceful for the rest of the night."

Dever told jurors during opening statements that the arguing continued the next morning. Minutes before the shooting, Marcelle texted Jones, who was in a separate bedroom, and begged him to leave the apartment.

"My son is scared," one text message read. "He said himself he wants Daddy to leave. Please, for the sake of my kids, please leave. It's one day before Christmas. Please just go."

Prosecutors contend that Jones shot Marcelle just after 6:30 a.m. in the back of the head after she turned toward the children in her bed. They allege he shot the children and himself.

Police found Jones bleeding from the face on the bedroom floor. His hands extended into the doorway. He tried to speak, but his jaw was injured and he was difficult to understand. A bullet remained lodged in his mouth.

Dills told jurors that police quickly decided Jones was responsible.

"They came to a conclusion at 6:40 a.m., and from that point on, they decided this was an intended murder-suicide," Dills said.

The defense team says Jones can be heard on police body camera footage answering a police officer who'd asked if he'd shot himself by saying, "No. We were fighting over the gun."

The officer testified he hadn't been able to understand Jones' garbled speech.

Jones is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree child abuse, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault, and weapons offenses.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday.