On August 8, defense for 27-year-old Troy Justice Jones filed for a new trial, claiming they had discovered new evidence that required a new trial.
After a ten-day marathon trial, Jones was convicted of the first-degree murder of twoyear- old Benjamin “Benji” Layne Taylor on April 14, 2023.
Young Taylor died in 2021.
The jury decided to sentence Jones to life with the possibility of Oklahoma. At the April trial, District Attorney Angela Marsee explained to the jurors that the state of Oklahoma requires those convicted of life with the possibility of parole to serve at least 38.3 years before being paroled. Oklahoma also considers life to be a 45-year term.
However, Troy’s defense now believes that some jurors improperly served.
Judge Jill Weedon will give her decision on this on September 8.
Weedon will be deciding whether one juror’s Facebook friendship with Jones’s former wife warrants dismissal, which Jones’s family allegedly discovered.
Jones had already ended his relationship with his former wife when Benji Taylor died. Taylor is mothered by a different woman.
During jury selection, the defense had the opportunity to ask potential jurors if they had friendships or social media connections with Jones’s prior relationships but reportedly did not.
