A Polk County man has been found guilty of intentionally killing his wife in early 2022 despite the fact that her body remains missing.
The Feb. 2 conviction of Joseph Leroy Jones in the death of Monisha Sharae Leath marks a rare victory for Georgia prosecutors, who have pursued fewer than 10 homicide cases without a victim’s body.
Polk County District Attorney Jack Browning said the credit for Jones’ conviction lies in large part with members of his and Leath’s families who “genuinely wanted to see the right thing done.” Two of Jones’ brothers and one of their wives testified at trial about how Jones confessed that he had strangled Leath during an argument at their Cedartown home, hid her body and went on the run, Browning told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“They could have easily just decided to disappear and refuse to say anything,” the district attorney said Monday of Jones’ siblings. “His younger brother is the first person he told and that brother called 911 in both Polk and Floyd counties, he was so distraught and concerned with what his brother told him he’d done.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said there have been fewer than 10 “no-body homicide cases” worked and prosecuted in Georgia. An agency representative could not provide an exact number on Monday.
Browning said he knows of only one other Georgia case in which a defendant was convicted of murdering someone whose body had not been found.
The district attorney said while Leath’s three children and other family members still don’t know where her remains are, they are relieved that a dozen jurors found Jones guilty of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in relation to her death.
“While they have the closure that the guy who brought all this about is going to be punished for his crime, they in all likelihood will never have the closure that they want so badly, and that is to be able to say a final goodbye,” he said.
Jones, 33, is due to be sentenced on March 6, the district attorney said.
Leath was reported missing on the evening of Feb. 24, 2022, after she failed to pick up her children from their elementary and middle schools, Browning said. She was 32, the GBI said in a missing person report at the time. No one has seen or heard from her since that afternoon, the agency said in a Feb. 9 press release.
Browning said Jones was found by law enforcement officers mere hours after Leath was reported missing. He had checked into a hotel in Thomson, Georgia, about 170 miles southeast of Cedartown, where he and Leath had recently settled.
Jones was immediately taken into custody for an unrelated probation violation and later charged with Leath’s murder, for which he was indicted in November 2022. At trial, the jurors deliberated for a few hours before unanimously finding Jones guilty of all the charges he faced.
Browning said the testimony of Jones’ brothers and sister-in-law was a crucial part of the case. He said Leath and Jones had argued after she discovered he had an affair, and that Jones strangled Leath at their Cedartown apartment during the dispute.
Testimony from the woman with which Jones had an affair also helped convict him, the district attorney said. He said phone records and data showing the movements of Jones’ vehicle refuted the lies that Jones had told investigators about his whereabouts.
A strangulation expert testified about “just how shockingly easy it is to strangle someone with your bare hands to the point that they become unconscious,” Browning said. He said it was important for the jury to understand how Leath died, given there was no autopsy report or medical examiner testimony to rely on.
“The challenge that was presented that’s not present in most murder cases is that, here, I had to prove that a death actually occurred,” the district attorney said. “Typically you have a body. But at the end of the day, I felt like I had good evidence.”
Members of Leath’s family, including one of her children, testified about how unusual it was for her to cease contact. Browning said none of Leath’s clothes or other personal items were missing, and that she hadn’t touched her bank account.
Credit: cour
Credit: cour
“Here’s a lady who was mother of the year and had never been away,” he said. “She was close to her family and always talked to them.”
Jones, who was represented by a public defender, did not testify during the five-day trial, the district attorney said. He said Leath and Jones had only been married for about a month before she went missing. They had moved to Cedartown from Cave Spring in Floyd County.
The public defender could not immediately be reached for comment.
Law enforcement agencies from four counties helped with the case, the GBI said.
