A California man who used to be a teacher slit his throat in a courtroom after the jury found him guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault Wednesday.
Jeffrey Scott Jones, 56, of Huntington Beach was found guilty of two counts of felony aggravated sexual assault of a child and a single count of felony continuous sexual abuse, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office reported by WJW.
Around 11 a.m., Jones took out a small razor blade and slit his throat as the judge read the verdict inside the Santa Ana courtroom, according to District Attorney Heather Brown.
Jones, who bled profusely from his neck, was rushed to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after medical personnel tried to stop the bleeding, WJW reported.
His attorneys have no idea how he obtained the blades and the sheriff’s department is investigating how he was able to sneak a blade into the courtroom.
Jones worked as a teacher for 27 years and was working at Libra Academy in Huntington Park when the crime occurred.
The victim was not one of his students.
Jones started abusing the victim when she was in eighth grade, making sexual comments and touching her inappropriately in the fall of 2012.
Jones raped the victim the following spring when the victim was 13 years old, and threatened to ruin her life she told anyone about it, according to the district attorney’s office.
Jones was arrested in late June after an investigation was started in late May.
Jones faces a maximum sentence of 68 years to life in state prison at his sentencing hearing Nov. 4.