Woman charged with aggravated murder

Published 9:08 am Friday, March 29, 2019

A woman accused of shooting her ex-husband has been indicted on a charge of aggravated murder.

Belinda S. Adkins, 41, of South Point, is accused of shooting Joshua C. Jones multiple times around 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 in the parking lot of the McDonald’s in South Point. Jones died of his injuries a few hours later at a hospital.

Lawrence County Prosecutor Brigham Anderson said last week that he would seek to increase Adkins’ original indictment from murder to aggravated murder adding there was the “element of prior calculation and design” before Adkins shot Jones. He added they did not seek death penalty in this case.

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“There are no aggravating circumstances in this case,” he said. Under Ohio Revised Code 2929.04, there are specific cases in which the death penalty can be sought which includes the murder is committed during a crime or while fleeing a crime, among many other possible offenses.

After the shooting on Jan. 23, Adkins fled the scene but was identified as the suspected shooter later that day and a murder warrant was issued for her arrest.

Her car was found in Ironton on Jan. 24, but she wasn’t located until Jan. 25, when she went to an acquaintance’s house on Cedar Street in Burlington and asked them to call the sheriff’s office so she could turn herself in. She met the detectives at the end of the house’s driveway and was arrested without incident.

At the time of the shooting, Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless said that the shooting was an isolated, domestic violence-related incident.

Anderson said the couple had been married and that they had at least one child because a week prior to the shooting, they had been in domestic court for a child custody case.

Adkins is still being held in the Lawrence County Jail on a $1 million cash or surety bond.