A Kansas bail bondsman was charged with first-degree murder Friday in connection with the death of his 7-year-old son, Kansas City District Attorney Jerome Gorman said.
Michael Jones, 44, was arrested last month after authorities discovered that his son, A.J., was missing.
Jones' wife, Heather, 29, was also charged Friday with first-degree murder.
Police were summoned to Jones' Kansas City home on Nov. 25 after reports of an “armed disturbance.” He was charged with “torture or cruelly beating a child,” aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
The next day, authorities returned to the Jones’ home with a search warrant and discovered human remains.
Michael was being held in lieu of $10 million bond. Heather was being held on $5 million bond; she was also charged with child abuse.
The couple had been together for nine years, Heather’s brother, Michael Williams, told NBC affiliate KSHB last month. He described their relationship as abusive, and said his sister was living in “fear for her own life.”
But Michael Jones’s daughter, 26-year-old Iesha Jones, defended her father, telling the station he was “the kindest most generous person in the world” and that he was “devastated” over the charges against him.
“He’s sitting in jail for something he didn’t do,” she said.