
His face devoid of any emotion, the evil father of 7-year-old Adrian Jones was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years in prison in a Kansas City courtroom today.

Dressed in a navy blue and white striped prison jumpsuit and orange Crocs, Michael Jones, a 46-year-old former bail bondsman, refused to look around as Adrian’s grandmother, sister and mother addressed the court. He pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder in the 2015 death of his son.

His wife Heather, 31, has already received the same sentence and is serving time in a lock-up in Topeka.

Adrian was a tiny bag of bones when he died. His last months were a living hell. He was locked behind a plywood door in a shower, made to stand for hours in stagnant water up to his neck, shackled, bound, starved and beaten.

His stepmother called him 'the boy,' rather than use his given name. While she and Adrian's father cared for their six girls, he was singled out for abuse of the worst kind.

And even in death, there was one last indignity. Instead of a proper burial, the seven-year-old was fed to pigs his father had bought specifically for the purpose of getting rid of his emaciated body.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Adrian Jones had 'a smile that would light up a room.' said his grandmother Judy Conway. But at the hands of his father and stepmother, the 7-year-old was tortured to death, with images of his horror caught on the couple's surveillance camera

Adrian was forced to stand in the shallow end of the Jones's filthy swimming pool for hours on end with water up to his neck

Adrian was blindfolded and strapped on to an inversion table in one of the dozens of pictures found on Heather Jones's computer

Michael and Heather Jones referred to little Adrian simply as 'the boy.' On Monday the last round in the criminal case against Michael Jones was sentence to life in prison in a courtroom in Kansas City, Kansas

Both pleaded guilty to avoid longer sentences.

But as Jones starts his life term the questions of how the system could have failed seven-year-old Adrian remains unanswered.

His grandmother, Judy Conway, is calling for a public inquiry into how no-one helped the football-loving little boy as he went through almost a year of unimaginable agony before he finally succumbed.

The Joneses documented the abuse they heaped on Adrian with dozens of pictures. This injury came after they jabbed him with a broomstick

'In Kansas there have been something like 15 cases when something similar to this has happened and only twice have they accepted any blame,' she told DailyMail.com. 'Even now, after all this time I still haven't seen the files.

She wrote to Gov. Sam Brownback to express her dismay. 'I never heard back,' she added shaking her head.

The tale of Adrian Jones has shocked Kansas and surrounding states ever since Heather Jones gave her landlady passwords for her computer because she wanted her to send pictures of her children while she awaited trial in custody.

The landlady, mom-of-four Jennifer Hoevers, couldn't believe her eyes when she clicked on image after image of the cruelty that was heaped on the little boy.

There was video of him shivering as he stood outside, shackled hand and foot wearing just a T-shirt and pajama pants shortly before 6 on a January evening. 'Let me tell you, Kansas is cold in January,' Hoevers told DailyMail.com.

In the distressing video, Adrian desperately tries to drink from a cup he can't pick up because his wrists are handcuffed behind his back.

There were pictures of Adrian bound tightly with rigid kitchen cutting boards beneath the bandages so he could not bend over.

There was a close-up of his lips, covered with angry sores, caused, investigators believe, because he had tried to chew away at his plywood prison.

There were pictures of him blindfolded and strapped to an inversion table — and others of the injuries that caused his legs.

Adrian was described as 'cute as a button' by prosecutor Sheryl Lidtke during Heather Jones's sentencing in November

The pigs that ate Adrian's remains were kept in a crate on the 15-acre property in Kansas City, Kansas

One of the pictures on Heather Jones's computers showed how she and her husband had forced Adrian to stand straight by bandaging kitchen cutting boards to his front and back

Adrian's legs were badly swollen from hours of being strapped into an inversion table by his father and step-mother

Adrian's grandmother Judy Conway last saw Adrian at Christmas 2012 when Michael Jones invited her to visit. The little boy appeared healthy and happy at the time, she says

'You were worth more than that dark basement and those cruel words. You were worth more than those bruises and hateful eyes. You were worth more,' Adrian's oldest sister Kiki Doctor wrote in an online letter after his murder

'I REMEMBER BEING TERRIFIED OF YOU': FAMILY MEMBERS SPEAK DURING JONES' SENTENCING Adrian's family - grandmother Judy Conway, sister Kiki Doctor and mother Dainna Pearce were all in Courtroom 16 at the Wyandotte County District Court on Monday after noon for the sentencing. Jennifer Hoevers was also present. Adrian’s sister Kiki Doctor, speaking directly to Jones, told him how he used to terrify her when she lived with him for four years as a child. ‘You were my father-figure,’ she said. ‘I remember being terrified of you because of the way you treated my mom. ‘My mother was scared of you, she was depressed and you were abusive. I remember how she locked herself in the bathroom saying she would kill herself because you had destroyed her self-esteem. ‘I thank God every day that she was not hurt,’ added Kiki, who also recalled Christmas Eve 2012 when he had hugged her and given her $100 and thanked her for looking after his children. ‘I wanted so badly to believe my siblings would be safe with you,’ she said. ‘You are deserving of eternity in prison with no chance of parole. You took an innocent life and my family’s emotional health as well.’ Jones’s ex-lover, Adrian’s mother Dainna Pearce added: ‘Adrian was in your care and you took his life from him and tormented him with cruelty. You killed him in the most gruesome, hideous manner. ‘You failed as a father,’ Pearce added. ‘You were supposed to protect him, love him, kiss away his hurts and show him how to be a great man. But you chose to murder your own flesh and blood.’ Detective Stuart Littlefield also spoke of the emotional effect the case had on all the cops who had been involved. ‘There is nothing that could have prepared us for this,’ he said. ‘The abuse and torture was only compounded by the fact that Mike and Heather had systematically documented it.’ ‘Nothing affected me more than when Mike told me that Heather would Tase Adrian for 15-20 seconds at a time,’ added Littlefield, who then stayed quiet for 20 seconds to let the court realize how long that time was. ‘Imagine the screams of that little boy,’ the detective told the court. He then said he asked some colleagues if they knew the names Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. ‘Of course all of them did. But then I asked if they remembered the names of an of their victims and they all said no. We remember the criminals but not the victims. ‘I hope that in 25 years when Michael Jones is eligible for parole, people remember Adrian Jones. He was 7 years-old, he was tortured, shackled and beaten to death. ‘And when his killers could no longer stand the stench of his body he was fed to pigs.’ Advertisement

And there was more — much more. Heather had even saved online ads for straitjackets and blanket wraps for transporting human bodies.

'She never told me that I would find pictures of Adrian — I was just shocked beyond belief at what I saw,' Hoevers said.

A close-up of Adrian's lips, covered with angry sores, caused, investigators believe, because he had tried to chew away at his plywood prison

'I just closed the computer down and spent a good day getting my thoughts together, trying to decide what I should do.'

Graphic pictures of Adrian standing naked in the shower showed him getting thinner and thinner until his tiny frame was skeletal. 'He looked like the pictures you see of concentration camp survivors,' said Hoevers.

She took the images to the police shortly after Heather Jones had been sentenced. The horrific evidence of exactly what went on in Jennifer Hoevers' house was discovered too late to be used in her case — but not too late for Michael's.

She made contact with Judy Conway and gave her a DVD with everything she found on the computer, warning her of how graphic it was. The first time Conway viewed it she threw up.

'The first picture I saw, Heather was posing him for pictures front and back. He looked like the most malnourished kid from a third-world country,' Conway told DailyMail.com.

Adrian Jones was the fifth of six children born to Judy Conway's daughter Dainna Pearce. The youngest three, Madison, Adrian and Tiesa were fathered by Michael Jones.

By all accounts she was a terrible mother. Her own daughter Keiona — known as Kiki — wrote an on-line letter to her brother after his murder. 'Mom liked to go out a lot; she didn't necessarily know how to be a mom, but you did not understand at the time because you were so young,' Kiki wrote.

The Jones's landlady Jennifer Hoevers was the first to discover the horrific abuse that Adrian had been subjected to when Heather Jones gave her access to her computer

Jennifer Hoevers rented this house to Michael and Heather Jones for $1,850 a month in June 2014. 'They seemed normal tenants,' Hoevers said of the first time she met them

Hoevers visited the home just once during the Jones' time as tenants. Everything seemed fine although she noticed the number of surveillance cameras in the house. She figured that being a bail bondsman could be dangerous so didn't think too much about it. Little diid Hoevers know the swimming pool was used as a torture device by the sick couple

The single-story, four-bedroom home is set on 15 acres of land on North 99th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. It is so isolated no-one would ever hear Adrian scream

The extent of Adrian's abuse was documented by this picture of his left arm. The lower arm is swollen so badly it is far thicker than his bicep

Adrian's stepmother Heather Jones documented her sick abuse of Adrain in photographs and in videos

Heather Jones mugshots from the Topeka Correctional Center where she is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for 25 years

Jones even took selfies of herself right in front of the shower where Adrian was confined. The wires connect to the surveillance camera that was jerry-rigged inside the shower

'I was always assigned to watch you and your sisters when Mom said she was going grocery shopping, but every time she wouldn't come back from the store until the next day.'

Kiki, now 20 and a junior at Emporia State University in Kansas where she stars on the track and field team and studies child psychology and development, even apologized to Adrian for sometimes wishing he and his sisters had never been born.

THE MAN WHO COULD HAVE SAVED ADRIAN Willie Flowers is the one person who could have saved Adrian Jones's life, but rather than report the abuse he knew was going on, he stayed silent. Flowers, 58, is Michael Jones's uncle and lived for a time in the Kansas City house with the family. He is even seen on some of the videos of Adrian. He has not been charged with any abuse and under Kansas law he was not obligated to report what was going on. When confronted by DailyMail.com, Flowers begged to be left alone. 'Can't you see I'm grieving?' he said. Flowers was loading up a UHaul truck and moving out of a relative's home opposite a school in Overland Park, Kansas, when DailyMail.com caught up with him. 'I ain't saying nothing to nobody,' he added. Jennifer Hoevers believes Flowers is nearly as guilty as Michael and Heather Jones. 'He should rot in hell,' she told DailyMail.com. She said Heather had told her Flowers was living in the rented home. When she went to the house after the Joneses' arrest she found Flowers's belongings in the house and a mattress on the floor where he slept. She also found mail addressed to him. Under Kansas law, only 'mandated reporters' are under an obligation to report abuse of children. The act says any other person 'may report the matter.' Mandated reporters include health professionals, counselors, law enforcement officers, social workers and teachers. Advertisement

'I would get so angry because my friends would get to hang out and be teenagers and I was always stuck at home watching you and your sisters,' she wrote.

Pearce did not respond to messages from DailyMail.com, but in a Facebook message found on Heather Jones's computer, she defended herself. 'Just know my children are my heart,' she wrote.

'They were raised by me, healthy, loved, fed, clothed, and in school, those three years with him and her changed them dramatically and put them thru hurt and pain and stress, they have been through hell and back.'

Madison, 12, and Tiesa, 7, are now in foster care, undergoing intense therapy, Conway said.

Kansas's Department for Children and Families (DCF) investigated reports that Pearce had taken drugs while pregnant but she tested negative. They probed claims of neglect that were unsubstantiated. But in 2011 they did find a lack of supervision and of allowing her kids to skip school.

So when Michael and Dainna split after he started an affair with Heather, it was Michael who got custody of his three children.

'I wasn't happy at all,' said Conway. 'I wondered at the time if they had done a background check into Heather. As far as I know they never did. 'Kiki and I fought really hard to get access to the children.'

Adrian's bith mother is Dainna Pearce. By all accounts she was an absentee mom to the little boy she had with Matthew Jones and other children

But for a while all seemed well. Conway and Kiki visited the family at Christmas 2012 and found Adrian healthy and happy. Michael Jones even gave Kiki $100 as a present and thanked her for looking after his children for so long.

That was the last time they would see Adrian.

In 2014 Michael Jones suddenly called Conway to tell her the little boy was in a psychiatric hospital because he had turned into a pedophile and had sexual predator tendencies.

Adrian was 6 at the time.

Jones told his ex-lover's mother she couldn't go see her grandson and abruptly hung up. Conway later saw a report from the hospital. It said that Adrian was a lively, curious boy. But when Michael and Heather visited he became quiet and sullen.

'But they still released him to their custody,' she told DailyMail.com. 'Why would they do that? I would have happily taken him.'

When Adrian left the hospital, he went to the home that Jennifer Hoevers had rented to Michael and Heather Jones for $1,850 a month in June 2014. 'They seemed normal tenants,' Hoevers said of the first time she met them.

'Heather was pregnant and we saw five girls. Adrian didn't live with them at the time. We were told he had some issues and was in a long-term hospital getting help. It wasn't our business to pry.'

The single-story, four-bedroom home is set on 15 acres of land on North 99th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. It is so isolated no-one would ever hear Adrian scream.

Hoevers visited the home just once during their time as tenants. Everything seemed fine although she noticed the number of surveillance cameras in the house. She figured that being a bail bondsman could be dangerous so didn't think too much about it.

But out of sight and sound the abuse had started. One video discovered by Hoevers shows Adrian standing for hours on end with his hands in the air. Another reveals him being hit across the face with a broomstick.

A photograph showed him with a bar of soap stuffed in his mouth, others with injuries caused by a Taser. Heather seemed to be documenting the abuse and the injuries it caused as if she was proud of it.

Hoevers even found a message Heather had sent to an unknown person: 'Just strapped the boy to my inversion table with handcuffs and ace bandages and put him downstairs,' she wrote, adding: 'the hubby wants some a** and I ain't had none in over a week!!'

She signed off cheerily: 'love y'all nighty night.'

And then, at some point between September 18 and October 4 of 2015, Adrian died. For two weeks, investigators believe the family lived with the body before Michael Jones went out and bought six feeder pigs. He then tossed the body in their pen trying to erase all evidence of how they had tortured the boy to death.

Adrian was made to carry tiki torches and made to walk around aimlessly in a video taken by his twisted father and stepmother

There was also video of him shivering outside, his hands shackled wearing just a T-shirt and pajama pants shortly before 6 on a January evening

At Heather's sentencing in November, prosecutor Sheryl Lidtke said she had never seen abuse like it in 27 years on the job.

HOW CHILD SERVICES FAILED ADRIAN JONES Kansas caseworkers failed to visit Adrian Jones for three and a half years before his death, the head of the state's Department for Children and Families has admitted. DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said he had not been seen since February 2012 as she made her first public comment on the case that has horrified the state. No-one from the department visited the house of horrors while Adrian was kept a prisoner there. Now the boy's grandmother Judy Conway is calling for a public inquiry into exactly how the department could have failed to come to Adrian's aid. 'DCF has just not been sympathetic,' Conway told DailyMail.com. 'Still to this day I have not been able to see the files, so I don't know what they did.' Michael Jones homeschooled the children so there were no teachers to monitor their well-being. 'Under Kansas law all you have to do is go online and register as a homeschool,' said Conway. 'He called it the Mike Jones Academy.' Conway has been battling DCF for months for access to Adrian's files. She says the department has always said they must remain sealed because it could affect prosecution of the case. But on Friday, Gilmore finally broke her silence on the case blaming the fact that Heather and Michael Jones moved home regularly making it difficult to keep track of them. 'This family moved frequently between Kansas and Missouri, which greatly disrupted continuity of services and evaluation,' said Gilmore. 'Nevertheless, DCF and Missouri officials remained in regular contact with each other regarding Adrian and shared information and location, when known. In fact, even during periods when the family was not residing in Kansas, DCF continued to reach out to the family regarding and inquiring about the welfare of Adrian. 'DCF thoroughly investigated each reported incident of alleged abuse and/or neglect regarding Adrian as well as requests for information and assistance from the family while they were residing in the state,' said Gilmore in a statement. 'DCF's last contact with the family was while they were living in Kansas in February 2012, and it was reported at that time that the father and the stepmother had separated.' She did not say why caseworkers failed to see Adrian after that but promised that the full file would be released if a judge unseals it. 'The death of any child through abuse and/or neglect is always a tragic loss, but the circumstances surrounding Adrian's last days are unconscionable as to how anyone could do this to an innocent little boy,' added Gilmore. Advertisement

'This is the most heinous crime I have ever prosecuted,' she said.

But Michael and Heather Jones might have gotten away with murder if only he had been able to control his temper.

Jennifer Hoevers has since discovered the couple had planned to skip out on their rental home and move to Utah where they could have started a new life where no-one would know that Adrian had ever existed

But on Thanksgiving, some two months after Adrian died, Heather Jones called cops to the Kansas City home. Michael, she said, had shot at her while she was holding her youngest daughter.

When police arrived Heather broke down and told them to look for bones in the pig pen. They found human remains that matched Adrian's DNA.

Michael and Heather Jones were arrested and ever since Heather has tried to pin all the blame on her husband.

On a Facebook message sent while awaiting trial, she wrote: 'I took responsibility for the children yes I loved them and cared for them but I am only 1 person and there was no controlling or getting away from that man when he was cycling!! He had cameras everywhere in my home all rooms and even outside.'

Then she talks about a time when he was stopped by police. 'When he was pulled over with the 6 girls he had only loaded assult (sic) rifles, loaded handguns, his drugs, promised me he was going to kill everyone that day and end it all.

'I am beyond broken for Adrian and my girls,' she added.

Heather and Michael Jones investigated buying a $285 humane blanket wrap, advertised as 'great for transport'