Apr 26, 2016 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – Teresa M. Jones hugged her 18-year-old daughter and kissed her newborn granddaughter on the forehead before she was led out of a Greene County Courthouse in handcuffs Tuesday after being sentenced Tuesday to two-to-five years in prison for drug and contraband charges.

Jones, 45, was convicted in July by a Greene County jury of possession of a controlled substance, contraband involving a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Jones, of 142 Kuhn Hill Road, Wind Ridge, sent two letters containing Suboxone to her son, Willie Wayne Jones, at Greene County jail in June of 2014. The letters contained strips of Suboxone, a form of buprenorphine that is used to treat opioid addiction. Willie Jones was being held in the jail on a burglary charge.

Teresa said Tuesday she sent the Suboxone because her son had been addicted to heroin and she knew he would be very ill going through withdrawal.

“It really is an awful drug and really hard to come off of,” she said.

Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman also ordered Teresa to pay court costs and a $250 fine.

Although the contraband charge had a minimum penalty of two years’ jail time, Jones and her attorney, Harry Cancelmi Jr., asked for a more lenient sentence, such as house arrest, since Jones is a primary caretaker for several of her children and grandchildren.

She said that although unemployed, she often watches her grandchildren while her children are in school or working. She said the family’s only income is food stamps and child and spouse support money from her husband who lives in Illinois.

Her daughter Larissa, who recently had a baby, testified in court about her mother’s role in the family.

“I’ll be the first to graduate high school in my family and it’s all because of my mom,” she said. “She watches my baby while I do my school work. She’s been the only support I’ve had. Without her, our whole family’s going to fall apart.”

Teresa apologized to the court for her actions and spoke briefly about her own fight with addiction, which, she said, led some of her children to substance abuse.

“I’m really sorry,” she said. “I’m trying to be a better grandmother than I was a mother.”