John B. Jones trial set for January
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A motion was heard Tuesday afternoon in the case of former funeral director John B. Jones, who was indicted on a grand jury accusation of misappropriating pre-need burial contracts in November 2010.
The hearing was very brief, with Circuit Judge Joe Jackson of Massac County simply asking both sides if they will be ready to go to trial at the end of January.
Special Prosecutor Charles R. Zalar of the appellate prosecutor's office and Jones' defense attorney, Joshua Bradley, both said they are prepared for trial.
Jones was indicted by the grand jury on five counts of theft and six counts of failure to deposit funds into a trust account when required by the Federal Funds Act. The evidence was presented to the grand jury by Zalar.
An investigation into prepaid funeral home contracts at Gaskins-Jones Funeral Home began in March 2010 and took quite some time to complete.
Issues involving the statute of limitations on some of the charges may come up in the trial, as some of charges date back a number of years.
The statute of limitations on failure to deposit funds and theft charges is three years, but if the theft arises from failure to perform a fiduciary duty the statute of limitations can run six years.