How prosecutors won a rare no-body homicide case in Luzeia Mathis disappearance

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — This case is one of the only no-body homicide convictions Maricopa County has seen in years.

Jamal Jones was convicted and sentenced to decades in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Luzeia Mathis, in 2019. She is still missing.

For the first time, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) prosecutor who won the case opened up about how they got the rare conviction and gave us the first look at crime scene evidence from the case file.

MCAO prosecutor Joshua Clark said that getting a conviction in a no-body homicide case is “very difficult.”

It’s not something the county attorney bureau chief sees even go to trial often, let alone be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt someone died.

“What we had to prove was that first of all, she was no longer alive, and second of all who did it?” Clark said.

As Clark learned about the missing girl, 18-year-old Luzeia Mathis, it became obvious she was controlled and manipulated by the last person to see her - her boyfriend Jamal Jones. “He had a knack of drawing her back in,” Clark said.

Then, she vanished. But did that mean Jones killed her?

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t do it. Nobody has to believe me, but I know the truth, and I didn’t do it,” Jones said in court.

It all began 5 years ago. Jones was charged with physically abusing Luzeia. She escaped but showed the police a text from him.

“His exact words were ‘Once I beat this court case I’m going to kill you,’ essentially,” Clark recalled.

Three months later, she was gone.

“We know she disappeared on August 21st, 2019,” Clark said.

All communication with Mathis was cut off, and her family reported her missing. Evidence in her apartment and car all pointed to one person responsible for her disappearance and death.

Jones was arrested for second-degree murder. That evidence was shown during the trial for the first time.

“There was a lot of very um...shocking things for the jurors,” Clark said. “For example, her car. What was found in the trunk of her car was her decomposing flesh, essentially. They found pieces of her scalp in the apartment, a good amount, and an indication of blood that was cleaned up in the apartment.”

Crime scene pictures were on display for the jury that showed blood-soaked rags and pillows. That physical evidence was damning enough, but Clark said they also had digital evidence on their side. Just before she disappeared, she was seen on surveillance video at the bank emptying her account.

Clark said when they looked closer they realized something. The person barely in the frame watching her from the back was actually Jones.

“It was a powerful visual for the jurors to try to drive home that this was a power control relationship, and he had all the power and control,” Clark said.

Three weeks later, another surveillance video revealed something more disturbing.

“On September 16th, he went to Walmart and was on video buying a shovel, chlorine, rags a scrub brush while driving her car. And after leaving Walmart he turned his phone off for 4+ hours,” said Clark. “It is my belief that Luzeia was in the trunk of the car when he went to Walmart and then left from there to wherever he buried her.”

Clark said that’s more evidence of murder than other cases where they have a victim’s remains. The jury agreed and convicted him, even with her body still missing.

“The victim’s family just really … and to this day … really just wants to know where Luzeia is,” Clark said.

Clark and his team tried to cut a deal with Jones, offering to drop a charge that would lessen his sentence by 12 years if he told them where her remains are.

“I would like to apologize to the victim’s family. You know, truly and sincerely I am sorry, but I’m not saying I did anything wrong. I’m not admitting to murdering her or anything,” Jones said in court.

He wouldn’t budge, and in April, he was sentenced to 41 years in prison. But it may not be the end of this case.

“We all believe that he had help in abandoning her body. There wasn’t enough to charge anybody else, but it is possible somebody else could come forward in the future to give us that location and I hope that does happen,” Clark said.

This is the first time Clark has been able to talk about the case and the emotions he felt during and after it.

“She was only 18 years old. It’s that loss of potential that’s really crushing,” Clark said. “That’s what sticks with you. That’s what doesn’t go away.”

His hope is that her body is found. But until then, a reminder sits on his desk, a picture he asked her grandmother if he could keep after the trial that shows her as a little girl with a big smile. That is how he wants to remember her.

“I like to keep things that remind me of that case and the reason why we did the work for Luzeia,” he said.

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