Richmond, VA: Man pleads to stabbing girlfriend to death

By REED WILLIAMS | TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: November 05, 2010

A Richmond man pleaded guilty yesterday to taking a kitchen knife and stabbing his estranged girlfriend to death as their 4-year-old daughter watched.

Moses Pernall Jones Jr., 23, pleaded guilty in Richmond Circuit Court to second-degree murder in the death Jan. 22 of Brittney Ivisha Randolph, 20. She died at her apartment in the 4000 block of Midlothian Turnpike in South Richmond.

Jones killed Randolph five days before a trial on charges of assault and battery of Randolph and trespassing on her property. Jones was free on bond but had been ordered by a judge to stay away from her.

But Randolph allowed him into her home for more than four hours, and witnesses said "their interaction ranged from friendly to argumentative," according to a summary of the prosecution's evidence.

Prosecutors Toni M. Randall and Andy Johnson did not give a definite motive for the stabbing.

Defense attorney John W. Luxton said, though, that Randolph had been "in a bad mood about the heat going out" and that Jones had been unhappy for some time about Randolph's decision to move to Midlothian Village Apartments.

"The mother had supposedly hollered at the child and that had upset him as well," Luxton added.

One witness reported seeing Jones take a knife from the kitchen and stab Randolph multiple times to the body. Their 4-year-old daughter also witnessed the attack.

"I cannot fathom how that image will haunt her for the rest of her life," Johnson said in an e-mail after yesterday's hearing. "Their daughter lost a mother, and her father will soon be sent to prison. I hope that the families will find peace, and I hope that the community can fully appreciate the seriousness of domestic violence."

After the stabbing, Jones fled the apartment and called his best friend. Jones and his friend rode together to Jones' parents' house in northern Henrico County, where they parked the car and Jones confessed to the killing, the friend testified earlier this year.

Later that day, police arrested Jones after a nine-hour standoff at his family's home. During the siege, one of Jones' sisters climbed out of a second-story room using what looked like a bedsheet, according to neighbors.

Sentencing for Jones is set for Jan. 6. He faces a prison term of five to 40 years.