Heartbroken mum shed bitter tears and cried “My babies! Oh God!” at her ex-husband’s trial for murdering their five kids yesterday.
Amber Kyzer struggled to contain her grief on the witness stand at Lexington County Courthouse in South Carolina.
Jurors were sent out of the courtroom and the judge was filmed leaning over his bench reach out to the distraught mother as sobbed uncontrollably.
But her ex Timothy Jones Jr. simply stood up and looked at her, showing no emotion.
Jones faces the death penalty for the murder of his children, Merah, eight, Elias, seven, Nahtahn, six, Gabriel, two, and Abigail, one, at their home in South Carolina.
He has been accused of beating one of the kids and strangling the other four to death before wrapping their bodies in plastic bags and driving them around for a week.
As part of her testimony yesterday, Kyzer was asked to read a letter she wrote for her oldest child, trying to comfort her over the divorce.
OVERBEARING HEARTACHE
Before she even begins to read, Kyzer takes deep breaths as she cries, muttering “I’m sorry”.
She then tells the court: “Vera, my sweet sweet daughter. I know that your heart feels heavy and you feel really sad sometimes.
“I want to assure you sweetheart that you along with your brothers and sisters mean everything to me.
“You kids are my world and mummy and daddy were very blessed to have you.”
She then screams out “Oh God! Oh God!” holding her head in her hands, before she turns around and bends over.
In heart-wrenching scenes, the grief-stricken mum shrieked “My babies! Oh God!” as jurors were escorted out.
Jones’ lawyers don’t dispute that he killed the children.
But they are trying to have him found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The trial took a 30-minute break after Kyzer’s breakdown, and defence lawyer Boyd Young asked her only a few questions.
She said Jones was a good father while they were married, but he seemed to start having mental problems after they divorced.
THE LOSS OF INNOCENT LIVES
Prosecutors said he killed six-year-old Nahtahn in a rage after finding the boy, fascinated by electricity, had broken an outlet in their home near Lexington in August 2014.
Jones then strangled Mera and Elias with his hands along with Gabriel and Abigail with a belt, prosecutors said.
He was arrested at a Smith County, Mississippi, traffic checkpoint, where an officer testified he noticed a strong odour coming from the car he recognised as “the smell of death”.
Prosecutors called the pathologist who did autopsies on the children to the stand Monday, but refused to show pictures of the bodies.