A jury has found Iesha Ariona Jones, 29, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Norman Sullivan, 52, of Chattanooga.
The verdict comes with an automatic life sentence, with eligibility for parole after 51 years.
The jury deliberated for almost 12 hours and also found Jones guilty of voluntary manslaughter, especially aggravated robbery and reckless endangerment in connection with an assault on the victim’s brother, Wayne Sullivan, 62, of Chattanooga after a three-day trial.
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Don W. Poole set a sentencing date for the remaining counts for Apr. 25.
Jones and her ex-husband, Domanic Geonata Gillespie, 30, were arrested in Benton, Tennessee, on Sept. 5, 2018.
Two days earlier, Chattanooga police officers had responded to a call of a person being shot at the 210o block of Vance Avenue. When officers arrived, they found Sullivan face down at the doorway of his apartment with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The police interrogation video of Jones was presented to the jury during the trial. In it, Jones asked Chattanooga police Sgt. Victor Miller, the supervisor of the homicide investigative unit within the department, what was going to happen to her.
“I just have one question, are we both getting charged for this, or just one of us?” Jones asked.
Miller then asked what she thought should be done.
“Someone’s got to be charged, but I don’t want to be charged for wanting to help myself,” she replied.
During the video, Jones also said that Gillespie – to whom she was married at the time – had just found out that she had sexual relations with Norman Sullivan two days prior to the incident. Jones also said that the gun “just went off“ after she put the clip back into it.
According to the testimony of former agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Jason Kennedy, a firearm and casings expert, that could not happen.
“You’d have to insert the clip and remove the safety and load the chamber if it didn’t have a round,” Kennedy said, adding that safety clips vary between gun manufacturers.
He also said that the trigger had to be pulled for the gun to discharge a bullet.
“The defendant, Iesha Jones played a part in every single [aspect] of this crime,” prosecutor AnCharlene Davis said during her closing argument.
Jones’ attorney, Hannah Stokes, argued that her client was only trying to defend Gillespie and herself and said her client did not call the police due to previous trauma resurfaced by the incident.
“This was a physical, knock-door drag-out that busted out into the living room where everyone could see,” Stokes said. “She said ‘it all happened so fast.’ She said she had gone through other traumas and this was one more and all she wanted to do was drive and go home.”
Executive Assistant District Attorney Cameron Williams said during his closing argument that by Jones shooting Sullivan as he was trying to run to safety, she was essentially finishing what Gillespie started.
“That is an intent to promote and assist in a first-degree murder,” Williams said. “That is an intentional act.”
James Metcalfe, director of the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified that Sullivan’s death was the result of being shot in the head and neck, and ruled it a homicide. Sullivan had three additional gunshot wounds to his back.
A trial date for the co-defendant, Domanic Geonata Gillespie, has yet to be set.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.
(READ MORE: Iesha Jones’ statement to police contradicted by expert during Chattanooga murder trial)
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