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Trapped child claws through sheetrock to flee
The child had been locked inside a bedroom closet at his Newnan home on July 5, 2023, when he broke through the wall and made his escape. A neighbor later found him walking down the street and called 911. The boy told the neighbor he was hungry, and the resident offered to take him to Taco Bell, according to prosecutors.
A Pattern of Severe Abuse
The boy had been adopted by Chloe Jackson-Jones in 2019 when he was 8 years old. Prosecutors said the abuse became increasingly severe after she removed him from public school and isolated him under the guise of homeschooling.
When the boy escaped, authorities said he weighed only about 61 pounds, despite being 11 years old.
The subsequent investigation by Newnan police and Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services uncovered what prosecutors described as years of systematic abuse.
Evidence Found on Her Phone
Investigators recovered photographs and videos from Jackson-Jones' cellphone that prosecutors said documented some of the abuse.
According to the Coweta County District Attorney's Office, the boy was denied food, forced to remain in stress positions for extended periods, subjected to ice baths, tied to chairs and locked inside the closet. Prosecutors also said he was strangled until he lost consciousness and physically assaulted.
Prosecutors said the evidence was so severe that doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta formally diagnosed the boy as a victim of child torture — a diagnosis the lead prosecutor said she had never encountered during her career handling child-abuse cases.
Jackson-Jones Pleads Guilty
Jackson-Jones, now 42, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault by strangulation, two counts of false imprisonment and 17 counts of first-degree cruelty to children.
Each of the 17 cruelty charges represented a separate act of abuse, according to prosecutors.
A Coweta County judge sentenced her to 40 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation. She is required to serve at least 20 years behind bars.
Prosecutors said they would have sought a life sentence if Georgia law allowed it for the crimes involved. They accepted the plea agreement in part to spare the child from having to testify about the abuse at trial.
A Different Life Now
The boy, now 14, spoke during Jackson-Jones' sentencing hearing and thanked the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who helped with his case.
After surviving years of abuse, he is now living in a stable home. Prosecutors said he is doing remarkably well and earning straight A's in school.
His escape through that closet wall ultimately exposed what had been happening behind closed doors.
What began as an 11-year-old's desperate attempt to get out became the moment that brought years of alleged abuse to light — and ultimately led to his former adoptive mother being sentenced to decades in prison.
Source: FOX 5 Atlanta
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