Affidavit details case against stepfather of missing 2-year-old

Reporting from San Diego —  The stepfather of a 2-year-old who went missing in San Diego more than a dozen years ago either injured the child on purpose or failed to seek medical help when the boy was hurt accidentally, a police detective said in a court document unsealed Thursday.

In her request for an arrest warrant, a detective noted that Tieray Dwayne Jones had made inconsistent statements to investigators after he reported Jahi Turner missing in 2002. For example, Jones denied at first that the child had suffered any falls, accidents or injuries while in the stepfather’s care.

Investigators have expressed doubt that Jahi went missing on April 25, 2002. According to the affidavit, some witnesses told police they saw Jones at the apartment complex without his stepson on the day the child was reported missing. A day earlier, a neighbor saw Jones carrying three large trash bags toward the laundry room/trash area of the apartment complex where he lived at the time. Another neighbor saw him carry a white trash bag to the Dumpster.

A journal entry attributed to Jones tells a different story.

“Today for some reason he hasn’t been moving or really talking,” read the entry, dated two days before the toddler was reported missing. “Jahi is starting to act really funny he won’t get up off the floor. He’s not walking or talking when I tell him to get his cup he just looks at me.

“I know it’s going to take some time,” the journal entry continues. “But I don’t want him hating me for something I can’t control. The bump on his head has gone down I put ice on it. It’s gotten a little red.”

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The search warrant affidavit — filed in San Diego County Superior Court on April 18 — reveals many details about evidence collected after Jahi’s disappearance, much of which comes from interviews with Jones, statements from Jahi’s mother, Tameka Turner, other witness statements and circumstantial evidence.

The document does not explicitly reveal what new evidence led to Jones’ arrest in North Carolina last month. He has since been returned to San Diego County, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and felony child abuse causing death.

If convicted, he could be sent to prison for 25 years to life.

According to the search warrant document, Jones, who is now 37 years old, initially denied that Jahi had been injured before he disappeared, but he admitted to investigators later that the boy had fallen once but suffered no cuts or bumps.

In a call from the boy’s mother to Jones in March 2015, Jones alludes to what happened to Jahi as an accident, according to Det. Maura Mekenas-Parga. During the phone call, which was monitored and recorded by police, Jones stutters and stumbles over his words when asked to clarify what he meant.

“I said if there was, if ah, if there was an accident or something, it would have been an accident,” Jones said to his former wife, a U.S. Navy sailor who had just been deployed when Jahi disappeared.

“What I am saying is that if it wasn’t, and I did something, like, why?” Jones continued, according to the affidavit. “... If it was an accident, sweetheart, I would have just said it was an accident.

“I’m not, I don’t, I have never run away from anything.”

After Jones called 911 the day Jahi was reported missing, he told police he had taken his stepson to a playground near Balboa Park, then left him alone for 15 minutes when he walked to a vending machine to get something to drink. The vending machine was more than 100 yards away.

He said the boy was gone when he returned.

The San Diego Police Department and scores of volunteers launched a massive search for Jahi in the park and surrounding neighborhood, through nearby canyons and even combing through tons of trash at the Miramar landfill. He was never found.

Judge David Danielsen ordered the arrest warrant document unsealed Thursday after requests from the media. The judge also relieved the county public defender’s office of its duty to Jones after two private lawyers took up his defense.

In an email Thursday, attorneys Alex Ozols and Vikram Monder said: “We read over the affidavit for the first time today and … there are clearly a lot of questions that need to be answered. We believe in Tieray’s innocence, we are going to fight for him until the end and we strongly believe that his son is still alive.”

When questioned by investigators, Jones denied taking the trash out that day.

Forensic testing revealed that a child’s onesie found in a laundry basket inside the family apartment had Jahi’s blood on it, as did an Elmo blanket recovered from a bed. Additional items of Jahi’s clothing, including a pair of Winnie the Pooh overalls, were found in a trash bin near the Jones apartment, mixed in with some of the mother’s belongings.

Jones has pleaded not guilty and is jailed without bail.

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Littlefield writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune