40-year sentence after DNA links to violent Clarksville home invasion – Evening News and Tribune

CLARKSVILLE A man will spend 40 years behind bars after being linked to a 2019 Clarksville home invasion by DNA evidence.

Gareth Jones was sentenced Wednesday to four decades at the Indiana Department of Correction on a felony 1 burglary charge. He also received concurring sentences for related level two and level five felony charges.

Jones was convicted on the charges earlier this year.

The charges are from an incident that happened around Christmas in 2019, when an elderly Clarksville woman said Jones entered her home and viciously attacked her.

The woman was 85 years old and said she was pulled from her recliner and pushed face down onto a concrete floor on Dec. 27, 2019. Her face was repeatedly bashed into the floor and she sustained multiple injuries including a broken wrist, ribs and a fractured orbital socket.

Jones was charged with and convicted of stealing property from the woman as well.

Although the incident happened in 2019, it took time and DNA evidence to link Jones to the crimes. He was arrested on a domestic battery charge in Floyd County nearly a year later and evidence from that crime scene tipped investigators off about the case out of Clark County.

Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tom Lowe said when Jones was arrested in Floyd County he was given a DNA swab.

Here is a case that by doing (the DNA swab at arrest) he was able to get into the system and we were able to match him (to this case,) he said.

The DNA from that swab matched a wallet that had been discarded in a dumpster near the victims home. It also matched clothing the victim was wearing at the time of the attack.

Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull told the News and Tribune earlier that these types of home invasion cases are not common in Clark County.

I would say it is rare for a home invasion to happen where someone is attacked and injured by someone they dont know, Mull said.

Jones is still facing charges on the battery case in Floyd County. Court records indicate theres a hearing regarding a plea agreement in that case scheduled for Oct. 19.

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40-year sentence after DNA links to violent Clarksville home invasion - Evening News and Tribune