Nebraska man sentenced to death in 2022 quadruple murder

HARTINGTON, Neb. (CN) — Many states have the death penalty. Some use it for routine murder cases.

Not so in Nebraska, a prosecutor told reporters Friday.

“If you look at the cases where people are sitting on death row in Nebraska, those are cases where there’s either been mass murders … or violent sexual aspects of the case,” Corey O’Brien said. “I think we take some pride, from the prosecution’s standpoint, in that fact that we have reserved the death penalty for the most egregious cases.”

A panel of three judges deemed the 2022 murder of four, plus the arson of their homes in the small city of Laurel, to be one of those cases. The panel sentenced the killer, Jason Jones, to death Friday during a hearing at the Cedar County Courthouse in northeast Nebraska.

In a trial that lasted just under three weeks in 2024, a jury convicted Jones of killing Gene Twiford, 86; Janet Twiford, 85; Dana Twiford, 55; and Michele Ebeling, 53; then setting fire to two houses where the four lived.

The jury also found that aggravating factors existed, meaning the death penalty should be considered. In Nebraska, such a decision is made by a panel of three local district court judges.

Whether Jones will actually be executed is anyone’s guess. The last person executed in the death chamber in Lincoln was Carey Dean Moore in 2018. The killer of two Omaha taxi drivers, his was the first execution in 21 years.

The decision announced Friday will be automatically appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a year before the Supreme Court hears arguments in this case,” Todd Lancaster, chief counsel for the Nebraska Commission of Public Advocacy, told reporters after the hearing. Lancaster, who defends the bulk of death penalty cases in Nebraska, served as Jones’ lead defense attorney.

The state’s current death row population is 11, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Nebraska’s death row is located at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in the southeast of the Cornhusker State. Its population will increase by one once Jones is transferred there from the state correctional Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln.

A different jury convicted Jones’ wife, Carrie Jones, in August 2025 of participating in Gene Twiford’s murder by encouraging and harboring her husband, then concealing and destroying evidence. Cedar County District Court Judge Bryan C. Meismer sentenced her in November to life in prison.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 2022, investigators believe Jones entered the Twiford home using a prybar and killed Gene Twiford and his wife and daughter there, apparently not realizing the women would also be home when he entered.

After the killings, they say he walked down the street to the Ebeling home, where he shot and killed Michele Ebeling. He set both homes on fire.

The killings were motivated by Carrie Jones’ belief that Gene Twiford, a veteran and a former Nebraska statewide commander of the American Legion, had said something rude about her.

Prosecutors have said Carrie Jones thought Ebling was “weird” and that Ebling had stared at her.

In Nebraska, the panel makes the final call on a death sentence, examining aggravating and mitigating factors.

According to prosecutors, those aggravating factors include the fact that Jones killed multiple people in a short time and that he committed two of the killings to keep from being identified.

Before the hearing began, about 40 family members and loved ones of the victims crowded onto wooden benches in the courtroom. They, along with about ten reporters from various local news organizations, chatted loudly.

The minute Jones entered the room, guided by Cedar County Sheriff Larry Koranda, the talking came to an immediate halt.

Jones waddled in, shackled. Short and stocky, with a head entirely bereft of hair, he wore a khaki corrections jumpsuit and taped glasses. He smiled slightly as a reporter snapped his picture.

Jones’ appearance in court was unusual, as he remains disfigured from burns on the night of the murders and cannot sit upright for an extended period. He did not attend his trial or other court proceedings.

In addition to Meismer, who presided over the murder trial, judges Timothy P. Burns of Douglas County and Patrick M. Heng of Red Willow County rounded out the panel. Meisner sat in his normal seat, with Burns and Heng sitting on each side.

The judges entered the courtroom having already made their decision.

Still, both the prosecution and defense made brief statements.

For the prosecution, O’Brien said that throughout the process, Jones had tried to make the slayings seem justifiable.

“Make no mistake, Mr. Jones: None of these people deserved their fate. They were never given the opportunity to bargain for their life,” he said. “You’ve had that opportunity.”

In his own comments to the court in defense of Jones, Lancaster said his client would have pleaded guilty, ending the process years ago, had the state not sought the death penalty.

“The death penalty in Nebraska is something the citizens of Nebraska have said they want, but I don’t think anyone understands what that means," he said. “It doesn’t deter any crimes. It wastes resources better used for other things.”

Asked by Meismer if he had something to day, Jones replied firmly, “I do not.”

Meismer then read from the ruling, detailing the crime and outlining the panel’s reasoning.

He recounted how first responders first found Ebling and the Twifords. Ebeling was found after an explosion was heard at her home. The Twifords were found later that morning after neighbors saw smoke coming from their house.

Authorities arrested Jason Jones later in the day and arrested Carrie Jones four months later.

The three judges took into account that Jason Jones had a minimal criminal history but did not give any weight to one of his mitigating factor claims: that his wife had undue influence on him.

“The panel notes that at the time the murders were committed, the defendant had been apart from his wife, Carrie, for several hours,” Meismer said. He also noted that “she was in a different part of the state working” and “had no way of contacting or communicating with the defendant, as she had taken his phone.”

“The panel comes to the unanimous decision to fix the sentence of death in this case,” he concluded.

No one made a sound as the verdict was read. And after the proceedings were complete, the victim’s loved ones filed out silently, their faces grim.

Some made brief statements to reporters at the courthouse after the hearing.

“My mother was more than a victim of a terrible crime,” said Richele Ebeling, daughter of Michelle Ebeling. “She was a mother, a friend and someone who touched the lives of those around her in deeply meaningful ways.”

She called the panel’s decision just but stressed it did not undo the harm.

“Justice, in this sense, is limited,” she said.

The judge’s must rule unanimously to send someone to death row, but that doesn’t always happen.

The slayings shook Laurel, a city of about 950. Before the murders, the last prior killing in Laurel had resulted from a 2005 bar fight. That incident resulted in a charge of manslaughter instead of murder.

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