Joel Jones (Source: Tarrant County Jail)
EVERMAN, Texas - A former fire department deputy chief was sentenced to life in prison this week after a Tarrant County jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent home-invasion rape against a woman he knew.
Life sentence
What we know:
Joel Jones, 54, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault. It took jurors approximately 20 minutes to hand down the life sentence after hearing testimony regarding the February 21, 2025, attack.
"One man's depravity was on full display this week in the Tarrant County Courthouse," Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells said in a statement.
Everman deputy fire chief, another man charged with sexual assault
Fort Worth Police say an Everman deputy fire chief is accused of getting another man to carry out a sexual assault.
The backstory:
Prosecutors said that at the time of the crime, Jones served as a deputy chief with the Everman Fire Department. Evidence presented at trial showed that Jones recruited Tobasia Griffiths, 31, through a dating website to carry out the assault, falsely telling him the encounter was a "consensual fantasy".
According to court documents, Griffiths entered the victim's home and bedroom on the night of the attack and assaulted her. The victim, a devout Catholic, fought back by striking her attacker with a lamp and managed to escape by convincing him to let her use the restroom, at which point she fled the house.
After the victim returned home and locked her doors, she called Jones, who then contacted 911 and feigned support for her, despite having engineered the assault.
Everman deputy fire chief used hookup app to solicit woman's rape, report says
Newly released court documents reveal why police arrested Everman’s deputy fire chief. Joel Jones is accused of using a hookup app to find a man willing to sexually assault a woman known to him.
Investigators discovered that Jones had instructed Griffiths to record the sexual assault, which he did. Within days of the initial attack, Jones attempted to arrange for the woman to be kidnapped and raped again. Prosecutors stated that Jones specifically wanted to "break" the victim and strip her of the faith that "anchored her".
What they're saying:
"There is evil in our world and it’s sitting right there," Assistant District Attorney Kim D’Avignon told the jury during closing arguments. "He wanted to take the most precious part of her and break it."
Griffiths also pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault and cooperated with the prosecution against Jones.
The Source: Information in this article is from the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.