Man sentenced to jail for setting teenager’s book on fire, burning her arm

OREGON – A former Rochelle man has started serving 88 days in jail as part of his sentence for locking his 13-year-old stepdaughter in a room and placing a burning book by her side in 2021.

James R. Jones III, 34, now of Savanna, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a child and was sentenced Oct. 9 to 30 months of probation and 90 days in jail. His jail sentence began this week.

Assistant State’s Attorney Melissa Vos said that when the girl tried to move the book away from her, she was burned, causing a permanent scar on her arm.

Jones initially had been charged in June 2023 with five other felony counts, including “whipping” the girl with a belt and “restraining her to a pole with cords.”

The state dismissed those charges when Jones pleaded guilty to one count Sept. 24.

During the first half of Jones’ sentencing hearing, Judge John “Ben” Roe heard testimony from Ogle County sheriff’s deputies, who said they responded to a report of a juvenile runaway in March 2023.

Deputies described the girl as “very soft spoken” and said she told them she had been forced to fast as punishment and had not eaten for three days.

In video footage provided by the deputies’ body cameras, the girl said Jones would lock her in her room in the basement with no access to a bathroom, forcing her to use a bucket when needed. She also said the basement had video cameras, which her mom and Jones used to monitor her actions through their phones.

“They sometimes give me provisions,” she said in the video. “It made me feel like I was a prisoner.”

She said sometimes she was able to undo the chain on the door and sneak upstairs while her other siblings, Jones and her mother stayed upstairs.

That night, she told police, she had found a library book upstairs and took it downstairs to read despite being allowed only to read the Bible or school books. When Jones returned home, the girl said, her mother told him that she had seen the book downstairs.

The book, “Dork Diaries,” is a children’s book series written in a diary format that uses drawings, doodles and comic strips to chronicle the daily life of a 14-year-old girl.

The girl said Jones tied her to a pole in the basement and lit the book on fire as punishment.

“He burned the book and put it next to my thigh,” she said.

She suffered a burn on her arm when she tried to move the book away from her body, Vos said.

During an interview with Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center in Dixon, an agency that investigates allegations of physical or sexual abuse, the girl said she was being homeschooled, missed seeing her friends and wanted to “go back to a regular school.”

She said her biological father lived in Austin, Texas, but her mother did not want her to contact him. She said she wanted to speak with her biological father because he understood her better than Jones did.

“He gets me better than my stepdad,” she said.

She said Jones often gave her “judgments” as punishment. She said when she loosened herself from the pole, he gave her a “whipping,” tied her back up, lit the book on fire and pushed it toward her.

“Then, he went upstairs and said he was going to get some gasoline,” she said.

The girl said she fled the home and called her father from the parking lot of a local business. She said her dad told her to calm down and called the police.

Roe sentenced Jones to serve 180 days in jail and 30 months of probation. He was ordered to comply with any counseling deemed necessary by the probation department, including any psychological assessments. He will serve half that time in the Ogle County Jail, with credit for two days already served.

The girl’s mother, Ayonna Jones, 33, was charged in June 2023 with domestic battery for punching and kicking the girl. She was sentenced to 18 months of probation in November 2023 and ordered to have no contact with the girl. She also was ordered to cooperate with the Department of Children and Families Services and complete any services that the agency required.