A South Carolina father has been found guilty of murdering his five children and driving with their decaying bodies around in his car for nine days.

A jury found Timothy Jones Jr, 37, guilty on all five counts of murder on Tuesday following a four-week death penalty murder trial.

He was found guilty on five counts of murder for killing his children Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2; and Elaine Marie, 1 in their mobile home in Lexington on August 28, 2014.

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As his guilty sentence was read out Jones showed little emotion, occasionally pursing his lips.

Jones faces the death penalty and his sentencing will begin on Thursday at 8.45am. As the state is seeking the death penalty, the jury is responsible for determining his punishment.

The jury had four options for their verdict: guilty, guilty but mentally ill, not guilty by reason of insanity, or not guilty. Jones had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

He confessed to the murders after his arrest - but his defense team argues he suffers from schizophrenia and the voices in his head ordered him to carry out the killings.

His trial began on May 14, 2019 in which babysitters, doctors, officers who arrested Jones, his parents and the heartbroken mother of his children Amber Kyzer testified.

On May 20, Kyzer sobbed before the court as she spoke of her murdered children.

'Oh god. Oh god. My babies. My babies,' she said at one point before breaking down in tears.

Closing arguments began on Monday June 3 with 11th Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard III stating, 'Tim Jones may love his family, but there’s someone he loves more, Tim Jones.'

The Lexington County jury considered the case for about six hours over two days before returning the five guilty verdicts for murder on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that Jones, an Intel computer engineer who was a devout Christian and had physical custody of the kids, snapped at his six-year-old son Nahtahn for breaking an electrical outlet in the home, and in his rampage strangled his kids in August 2014.

He first killed Nahtahn in a rage making him do hours of exercise until he died. Then he strangled eight-year-old Merah and seven-year-old Elias with his hands and two-year-old Gabriel and one-year-old Abigail with a belt, prosecutors said.

Both sisters' last words to their father were 'I love you', according to Jones' video-taped confession to police that was played in court earlier in the trial.

Jones then searched the internet for countries that don't extradite suspects back to the U.S. and took his passport. He also researched how to disintegrate bodies faster.

After killing the children, authorities said Jones wrapped their bodies in plastic and put them in his SUV, driving aimlessly around the Southeast US for most of nine days before leaving their bodies on a hilltop in Camden, Alabama.

Jones was arrested at a Smith County, Mississippi, traffic checkpoint, where an officer testified he recognized a strong odor coming from the car as 'the smell of death'.

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Jones was a devoutly religious person who spent time in jail in the early 2000s on a drug charge.

He believed he was doing the right thing before God in violently spanking his children and his marriage disintegrated as he became more religious and believed women should remain at home and out of sight.

Jones had full custody of his children at the time of his death. He and children's mother Kyzer got married, but divorced after he became rigid in his religion and became demanding with her.

'Women are to be seen and not heard. I was merely to take care of the children. To keep them out of his way,' Kyzer said.

After they divorced, Kyzer couldn't afford a lawyer, so she agreed to joint custody with Jones having physical custody of the five children.

Jones also had a job that paid $80,000 as an Intel computer engineer, and a car.

Kyzer would get a ride to the Chick-fil-A in Lexington to see them every Saturday under Jones' watchful gaze.

He called her on the day of his murderous rampage. In court she recounted how she heard her son Nahtahn crying on the phone.

'Mom, I didn't mean to,' Nahtahn told her just moments before Jones said in the background: 'You could have killed yourself son.'

Kyzer testified that Jones sounded outraged and Nahtahn was dry heaving.

Jones then asked her why she was always defending the kids and when she responded he told her to 'shut the f**k up' and hung up the phone.

That was the last time she ever heard her son's voice.

Jones' live-in girlfriend Chrystal Ballentine also testified saying that she could hear him beat his children through the walls of their home. Joy Lorick, a former babysitter for the family who went on trips with them to Disney World and Myrtle Beach said she saw Jones spank his kids on the trip as well.

Prosecutors had called the pathologist who did autopsies on the children to the stand in the trial, but refused to show pictures of the bodies.

Defense attorneys wanted them shown because it might aid in Jones' insanity defense to show how badly decomposed the bodies were in the back of the SUV, but Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith refused.

The defense told the jury that Jones is schizophrenic and had not been diagnosed at the time of his death. His attorney said Jones' mother was institutionalized for 20 years for schizophrenia.

Jones' grandmother, Roberta Thornsberry took the stand as a witness in the trial for the defense and talked about his traumatic childhood as the son of a schizophrenic mother.

Credits: Daily Mail