The Courts, Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Illness: The Case of Dwight Lamon Jones

• Author: Neil Websdale
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12176

The Courts, Intimate Partner Violence and

Mental Illness: The Case of Dwight Lamon Jones

By Neil Websdale

ABSTRACT

Through the lens of the high-profile spree killing perpetrated by Dwight

Lamon Jones in 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, this article examines the way the criminal

and civil courts grappled with assessing the significance, extent, and outcome of the

IPV and abuse directed at Dr. Connie Jones, Dwight Jones’s former wife. The case is

unusual, not least because Dr. Jones had an upper middle-class income and numerous

resources IPV victims do not normally enjoy. Nevertheless, she felt the courts let her

family down. Journalists, victim advocates, and others also criticized the Arizona

courts. The article outlines the spree killing and the criticisms of the courts, narrates

Jones over a period of nine years including the IPV and mental illness, and, through

the work of the Study Committee convened by Arizona Chief Justice Bales, explores

the potential use of IPV risk assessments in the courts, particularly the family court,

and related matters. It concludes with recommendations regarding possible preven-

tive interventions in IPV cases, including those addressing mental illness.

Key words: intimate partner violence, mental illness, risk assessment, criminal and family

court, relative and absolute risk, rule of law, due process, fair justice.

Professor Neil Websdale is Director of the Family Violence Institute at Northern Arizona Univer-

sity (NAU) and Director of the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative (NDVFRI). His

tenure resides in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at NAU. He has published work on

domestic violence, the history of crime, policing, social change, and public policy.

Dr. Websdale has written five books: Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System: An Ethnography (Sage,

1998)which won the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award in 1999; Understand-

ing Domestic Homicide (Northeastern University Press, 1999); Making Trouble: Cultural Constructions of Crime,

Deviance, and Control (Aldine Books, co-edited with Jeff Ferrell, 1999); Policing the Poor: From Slave Plantation

to Public Housing (Northeastern University Press, 2001), winner of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

Outstanding Book Award in 2002 and the Gustavus-Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human

Rights Award in 2002; Familicidal Hearts: The Emotional Styles of 211 Killers (Oxford University Press,

2010). Dr. Websdale’s social policy work involves helping establish networks of domestic violence fatality

review teams across the United States and elsewhere. He also directs various community informed intimate

partner violence risk assessment initiatives, the fatality review and safety assessment projects, and a number

of other multiagency and interdisciplinary initiatives. Dr. Websdale trained as a sociologist at the University

of London, England and currently lives and works in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Juvenile and Family Court Journal 71, No. 3

©2020 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

57

INTRODUCTION

Dwight and Connie Jones lived with their son in a million dollar-plus home in

Scottsdale, Arizona. Dwight and Connie married on June 11, 1988. Over the years, Con-

nie became a prominent Scottsdale radiologist and a published author in her field.

1

Dwight was a stay-at-home father to their son, Yannick, born in February of 1997. For

twelve years Dwight had no regular job outside of the home. Occasionally, he gave tennis

lessons. Because of Dr. Connie Jones’s income, the family enjoyed a high standard of liv-

ing. Despite their material advantages, family life began to unravel. According to Con-

nie, Dwight was a “personal terrorist,” an abusive, controlling husband who threatened

her life on a number of occasions and used violence against her. Their marriage broke up

after a domestic violence incident in 2009, first with separation, then divorce. This inci-

dent led to criminal charges against Dwight stemming from his violent, threatening and

harassing behavior.

After 2011, Dwight did not have contact with his son. Dr. Jones’s alimony pay-

ments to Dwight ceased on June 30, 2014. Between 2009 and 2018 Connie Jones feared

for her life and that of her son. During that time, Dwight threatened and stalked her.

Dwight’s bitterness and sense of persecution grew and his mental health deteriorated.

Those who helped Connie extricate herself and her son from their former family life also

became the targets of Dwight’s wrath.

The culmination of the case was extremely rare: a spree killing. For five days from

May 31, 2018, Dwight Jones killed six people. On June 4, 2018, as police closed in on

him at the Extended Stay Hotel in Scottsdale where he had lived for the previous nine

years, Dwight took his own life.

Dwight’s first victim was Dr. Steven Pitt, 59, a prominent Scottsdale forensic psy-

chiatrist. On April 6, 2010, Pitt conducted a risk assessment evaluation of Dwight’s

mental health and reached the conclusion that Dwight had an anxiety disorder, mood

disorder and features of antisocial, narcissistic and paranoid personality. Pitt noted

Dwight’s failure to adhere to social and legal norms, his irritability and aggressiveness,

lack of remorse, recurrent suspicions regarding Connie’s fidelity, dearth of close friends

and confidants, and grandiose sense of self-importance and his need for constant

admiration.

2

Dr. Pitt left his Scottsdale office on Thursday, May 31, 2018. The office was less

than a quarter of a mile from where Dwight Jones had been living. Dwight approached

Dr. Pitt just outside of Pitt’s office building. The men engaged in what witnesses

described as a loud argument. Dwight shot and killed Dr. Pitt, then fled.

On Friday, June 1, 2009, Dwight shot to death Veleria Sharp and Laura Anderson,

both paralegals at the Scottsdale law offices of Burt, Feldman and Grenier in downtown

Scottsdale. Connie Jones used Elizabeth Feldman as her attorney. Just a day later, he

1

Dr. Jones wrote “The Breast Test Book: A Woman’s Guide to Mammography and Beyond,” New

York, Oxford University Press, 2017.

2

Only about one percent of the population exhibit the sociopathic behaviors displayed by Dwight

Jones. This mental condition is consistent with Dwight being found to be a threat to himself and/or others

and his confinement at the mental health facilities noted later.

58 | JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL