BATESBURG, S.C. — Pamela Shaw said she didn’t recognize the blue BMW that parked in front of her Youman Street home Saturday morning, and it worried her.
Remembering Master Cpl. Rogers
Recent Officer Deaths:
“This is a quiet street,” Shaw said. “Nobody ever comes here.”
When the car didn’t drive away, she eventually went out to see who it might be. That’s when she saw Joshua Tremaine Jones standing in her driveway.
She was surprised to see her 26-year-old cousin, she said. It had been months since their last conversation. Even so, she said Jones didn’t offer his usual hug, and hardly said anything when she asked him to come inside.
“He looked like he had been crying,” she said Tuesday. “He was very quiet.”
Shaw said she didn’t know about any of the events that had police searching for Jones that morning. She didn’t know that Jones’ pregnant girlfriend, Cayce Vice, was lying dead in her Augusta apartment. She didn’t know that Aiken Public Safety Master Cpl. Sandra E. Rogers had been fatally wounded near Eustis Park. She didn’t know about the high-speed chase that morning in which police say Jones eluded his pursuers.
“If I had known about any of that, he would not have come into my house,” she said.
Still, she knew something was amiss. Jones took a seat on a couch in her living room and dropped his eyes to the floor, avoiding all conversation.
“I kept asking, ‘What’s wrong, Josh? Are you OK?’” Shaw said. “He just kept saying, ‘I’m OK.’”
Soon, the two were joined by Shaw’s daughter, Porsha, and her 1-month-old granddaughter. Porsha Shaw said Jones was distant, but not agitated or acting strangely.
“He just wouldn’t make eye contact,” she said.
Pamela Shaw said she knew Jones as a relative who had reached out to her several months earlier for help. Jones told her he had lost all his identification and didn’t have a job or a place to stay. He wanted to use her house as a mailing address until he got back on his feet, she said.
“He was just a cousin I tried to help. He was down on his luck,” she said. “I told him, ‘You really need to pull yourself back together and try to be productive.’”
Shaw said Jones never lived with her and checked in infrequently. She really didn’t know where he was staying.
“He was just moving from house to house,” she said. “I hadn’t talked with him since way before Thanksgiving.”
After Jones had been in her home for an hour or so, Shaw said she needed to run an errand, so she asked her cousin to accompany her to the store.
They walked outside and Shaw started the car, but Jones didn’t get in.
“He walked away,” she said. “That’s when I saw the police. They came out of everywhere.”
Shaw said dozens of police officers swarmed Jones and pointed weapons at her and her daughter, placing them in handcuffs.
“That’s the worst day of my life. I’ve never been involved in anything like that,” Shaw said.
Tears come to her eyes whenever she thinks about that morning. She hasn’t been able to go back to work yet.
“It scared the daylights out of me,” she said. “I’m still shaking.”
Despite the traumatic experience, Shaw said she doesn’t hold anything against the officers who made the arrest. She can only think of the families of the victims and how they must be suffering.
“If it had been my family, I would want them to do the same thing,” she said.
Jones, charged with murder in the slaying of Rogers, remains in the Aiken County Detention Center. Murder warrants also await him in Richmond County in Vice’s killing, police said.
Porsha Shaw said videos showing Jones’ erratic behavior at Monday’s bond hearing were very troubling.
“I’ve never seen him act anything like that,” she said. “We’ve never seen that side of him.”
Since Saturday’s events, Pamela Shaw said she has been embarrassed to see cars of curious onlookers drive by her home. She hopes others can understand that they had no part in what Jones is accused of, but she’s having trouble making sense of it herself.
“I don’t know why he came here. I don’t know what he was thinking,” she said. “None of this seems real.”
Some public defender reading this must be having images of any insanity defense circling the drain.
I hate that y'all had to be involved in this. Especially with the baby being there. I don't know how I would have handled that situation. And I'm sure people are not so understanding towards y'all just because he was a part of your family. I can't imagine the embarassment and stress you are going through.
And the insanity thing??? Even his own family says they've never seen him act like that... OBVIOUSLY there is nothing mentally wrong with him. I've been saying it & will keep on saying it. He's not going to be able to pull the "insanity plea" off.
He apparently has been an inpatient at Aurora Behavioral Health facility before this according to the dad. There will be medical records to define his mental state. Medical records would obviously trump any of the random opinions on here being offered regarding sanity vs insanity. So I will wait to opine. I will say this, if he was faking his behavior, which I, doubt, he is one damn good actor.
I dont understand what a beautiful girl would ever give that stupid looking guy the time of day. What could she ever see in him.
He's not a "damn good actor", he's a master manipulator. I've dealt with his kind before. Loud, mouthiness always gets them their way. "Poor, pitiful me" always gets them their way. It's a learned behavior. Crazy? Yeah, like a fox!
According to reports yesterday he has had mental problems and even tried to commit suicide in the past. He was apparently in some type of mental health care at one time and stopped making appointments. Does he perhaps have a mental health problem? Maybe. Is he insane is yet to be determined. A person can have certain mental problems that is not apparent everyday, for instance a person with schizophrenia does not have episodes everyday but it does not mean that they still do not suffer crisis. I have a family member with schizophrenia and most people would never know because they have not ever seen him when he is really bad and because he takes meds to help the symptoms. This guy may not have anything wrong with him, he may be putting on an act but I think that the doctors will find out if he is. Either way, it is tragic what has happened and I pray for the victims and all of the families left to deal with it.
He is definitely crazy. My heart goes out to the victims family as well as his. I will leave it up to the Lord to judge him!!
I express my sympathy for the families that lost life. I also pray for Mr. Jones because he has 100% visual signs of someone dealing with schizophrenia. i have a brother that has schizophrenia and he holds his mouth, face, body real stiff, and uncontrolled movement of his head of twitching and face movements. He grunts as well. Some of the medications they put them on if family doesn't speak up and let a doctor know because the patients do not see themselves as crazy they see everyone else as crazy. Family has to speak to the doctors and tell them when medicine isn't working, or if there are changes.
When I look at Mr.Jones I see my brother... With all the budget cuts in mental health and so many mental facalities have closed nationwide there is no help for the mentally ill. If they would spend as much money as they do on AD's warning about smoking and meth for the mentally ill that need it there maybe less such violence acts would take place.
Finally, sensible comments. Prayers to all of the families involved. Mental health in the African American community is not dealt with as indepth as it should, yet, that does not mean kill someone...but who am I to speak on that. . . .I am not in his shoes.
Bless Pamela Shaw; she seems like a very caring and understanding person. I think I woud have been a little more bitter about getting a gun pointed at me and handcuffed.
Mental health is NOT dealt with WELL in any community in our US of America. The 'others' riding by Pamela's home need to get a grip. How exceptionally cruel to ride by and stare at someone's home! Love continues to be the remedy to all our woes. It is simple, simply, love as Jesus loved.
He is not crazy, he is not insane. He might be definitely at the brink of loosing it (temp), He is in shock, at worst.
FATBOYHOG - knows it all, but I am still going to wait on his medical records history to determine whether he is a damn good actor - which is basically a trait of a master manipulator - or whether he has a serious mental condition. Poor pitiful me-s do come in all shapes and sizes - black, white, male, females, rich, poor. That is another issue. And I am the first to say I have no sympathy for eternal victims. We'll see how this turns out, but my bet is that the medical records will provide more accurate information than the experts on here who already have it figured out that mental issues are not involved.
They said Jeffrey Dahmer was sane, too. He was killing people and eating them. I don't believe there's too much hope for an insanity plea although he's probably batcrazy. The law comes up with the resonable solution and it's not about to let this guy off.
Vice President Joe Biden said it best we will see increasely violent on the streets due to Republicans in Congress rebuking Obama's job plan. Jobs are not here people are getting hunger and Republican House Leader John Boehner are trying hard to let KeyStone run a pipeline through your back yard while officers on the street are losing their lives.
@ raul...
kissofdeath just wants to put his political feeling into this convo. This dude suspected of killing his pregnant girlfriend and a police officer had nothing to do with him and his "jobless" situation.
Well Pamela is my neighbor and my friend, as I read I could hear her very soft spoken voice. I had tears in my eyes, because it's been truly rough on her the last couple of days. I have had a rough few days myself because she's like family to me. We live side by side, and he knows he didn't stay there. His mental health, I really don't know about, but to kill innocent people there's gotta be something wrong somewhere, it's for the doctors,law and GOD to determine that. I hate that he involved her and her children. I am glad that the law did their job...they were really nice to her considering all that had happen, but I feel as though them coming when they did they saved my friends life.
well written article. And the killer, even if he was diagnosed as mentally ill, should never be released out to the public again. Either prison or life time mental hospital.
Porsha Shaw said videos showing Jones’ erratic behavior at Monday’s bond hearing were very troubling.
“I’ve never seen him act anything like that,” she said. “We’ve never seen that side of him.”
That’s because as soon as he saw the cameras, he turned on his acting or his manipulating demeanor. He is fully capable of standing trial and being put to death, sooner the better.
As for this cousin, she sounds to be a good person and an understanding individual who was placed in a bad position. I hope she soon regains the peace and quiet within her own home and life that she deserves.
Well said Asitisinaug!!! And yes as for the family members I hope they can get over this soon. It sounds very horrific especially having the baby there around all of that.
The law should be changed. We go through this charade proving the perpertrators are not crazy when it's very likely they are as I alluded to with the Jeffrey Dahmer example above. My point is some people deserve to be executed even if they are crazy. Are we supposed to allow insane homicidal types to he held in less than a secure prison? Let's drop the legalese and say it doesn't matter if the killer is insane.
I certainly agree that he should never be released, do I think "if" he is found to be mentally ill that he should be executed or thrown in a prison and receive no help for his mental illness if there is one? No, I think if he is truly found to be mentally ill he needs to be treated as such but still never released to be in public again. If anyone has a friend or family member with a mental illness then they understand what I am talking about. You can be mentally ill without being insane, Jeffery Dahmer may have not been in sane, but no normal thinking and feeling human being would do the things he did.
Stillamazed, that's pretty much it. Just change the law so we can execute insane murderers, too. They are too dangerous to ever let out. We all know Dahmer was crazy, but we played the little game and said he wasn't so we could imprison him. We weren't about to let him out. Crazy or not, you kill, you go to the dunghill.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
