Sexton: He won an election. Now he's in jail - and telling his side

Edward Jones sat quietly on one side of a plexiglass window in a visitation area of the Forsyth County Detention Center, eager to tell his side of the story.

Like many inmates, he has complaints about being locked up - the food, his lawyer and the charge he's facing. "This is not a good place for an animal to be, really," he said.

But this isn't about the commissary or confinement.

This is about a public figure, a 56-year-old former elected official who's facing years in prison for election fraud.

You may not remember his name, but you might recall his story.

Jones was arrested in February 2025 following an improbable victory in a race for a seat on the Forsyth County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Jones has been in jail for 15 months, charged with three felony counts of election fraud, being a habitual felon and, as a registered sex offender, failure to notify authorities about an address change.

His health has noticeably deteriorated and, if convicted, he faces a lengthy prison sentence. His $50,000 bond might as well be $1 billion. He's not getting out anytime soon.

Despite all that, Jones said he has no regrets, even though his decision to run led to legal trouble that could have been easily avoided.

"To be honest, no," Jones said when asked whether he rues his choice. "I do wish (election officials) had said something. But if I didn't win, none of this would have happened."

An unusual candidate

The story about how Edward Jones found himself locked up - not for the first time, by the way - shocked the community when it unfolded in late 2024.

A political unknown, the now 56-year-old filed to run as a Democrat for the Soil and Water Conservation Board.

Those races attract little attention outside the farming community and less scrutiny. Anyone over 21 can run for $5.

Jones decided to throw his hat in the ring.

His reasoning, then and now, is clear to him even if it doesn't make much sense to the rest of us.

"I wanted to help youth," Jones said. "My whole campaign was about making their lives better, helping those kids get straight with things to do, places to go."

He added, "It was really just to save the youth."

Before the first ballots were cast, plenty of warning lights were flashing for voters who had been paying attention.

Jones told a Journal reporter in the standard candidate questionnaire that he was a former rapper, that he'd been shot multiple times and had been in a coma for eight years.

Those unusual answers did nothing to dissuade the county Democratic Party from backing his candidacy, which almost certainly helped his campaign.

But it was what he didn't say - or disclose - that put him in this predicament.

Jones, authorities said, didn't check "yes" on an official Notice of Candidacy form that asks: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"

Not answering truthfully is a Class I felony, punishable by 3 to 24 months in prison.

According to the N.C. Department of Correction, Jones is a felon who served 2 years, 8 months in prison for failing to register as a sex offender and failing to notify the sheriff's office about a change of address.

Under North Carolina law, Jones is required to register due to a 2001 conviction in New Jersey for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

Whether simple oversight or deliberate omission, non-disclosure served as the basis for a post-election investigation that resulted in three election fraud charges: failing to disclose his status as a convicted felon, filing to run for office in Forsyth County while he resided in Davie County and voting in Forsyth County while living at the same Mocksville address.

Unwanted attention

Aside from red flags about his peculiar answers about his candidacy, not much else was widely known about Jones before the election. His background went undetected, and he beat Republican Lei Zhang, a professor at Winston-Salem State with a long history of working on water-related issues, by winning 63% of some 90,000 votes cast.

Partisan politics and straight-ticket voting played roles, but so, too, did the uncomfortable idea that some voters might have chosen a candidate with an "American-sounding" name over a university professor who speaks with an Asian accent.

Either way, Jones was sworn in, attended training sessions and at least one board meeting.

"(Jones) came to the December meeting and was as engaged as anyone," board chair Toby Bost said after the charges were announced. "He was all ears and eager to participate."

That's true, Jones said. After the election, he was determined to fulfill his duties.

Then came his arrest in February 2025. A news conference was called, and Jones received a lot of unflattering attention.

"We both agree that the public needed to have that information prior to November, so that they can make a good decision," said District Attorney Jim O'Neill while standing next to Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough. "It is a slap in the face for the rest of us that are doing what we're supposed to do when we fill out those candidacy claims."

The arrest, Jones said, came as a surprise, and he remains bewildered about it. He mistakenly believes that election officials should have checked the record and provided him with clearer information about the disclosure law.

"Why did they let me run and win?" he said. "They didn't say nothing until I won (and) got sworn in."

Under state statute, disclosure is the candidate's responsibility. "The way the law is written, there is nothing that states for us to do any additional background check," said Tim Tsujii, the county director of elections.

At a bond reduction hearing in March 2025, Judge Aaron Berlin of Forsyth Superior Court spoke for many in the community in addressing the situation.

"It has created a monumental mess," Berlin said, adding that allegations "put huge distress in the public confidence in the voting system."

And because he was in jail, unable to post bond, Jones couldn't attend board meetings. He was quietly removed from office in September by the state Soil and Water Conservation Commission for repeated absences.

Struggling behind bars

Jones has been trying to tell his side of the story since last summer. He wrote a letter asking to be interviewed, but backed out on the advice of his attorney, assistant public defender Nathan Schall Wilson.

"He told me you were setting me up," Jones said.

He changed his mind and called from jail last month to renew the request.

So Monday morning, he talked about his situation, being incarcerated, how he's doing and what may come in a rambling conversation in a jail visitation room.

He said he didn't know anything about the sexual assault conviction in New Jersey and maintains that his conviction for failing to register as a sex offender was a case of mistaken identity.

He claimed not to remember misdemeanor larceny convictions from 2024 in Davie County that court records indicate were filed in connection with shoplifting vaping material and other items from a vape and tobacco shop in Mocksville. "I only smoke cigarettes," he said.

As for other pieces of his story - the gunshot wounds specifically - Jones pulled open his jail-issue jumpsuit to show significant scarring on his arms and torso.

Related or not, his health has declined since he was arrested. He uses a wheelchair and says he has had two strokes and heart trouble. In the same breath, he said that he has not had a mental health evaluation. "Nothing like that, no," he said.

Still, his attorney said otherwise in a bond hearing in March 2025.

"He isn't a well man," Wilson said, adding that Jones is suffering from "significant mental health diagnoses."

The whole episode is sad, and a lot of it, even after Jones finally has his day in court - whenever that may be - may never be fully understood.

Whatever his health issues may be, Jones understands what he's facing and stands by his decision to run.

"I really just wanted to help the kids. That's all I wanted to do … That's why I don't regret it," Jones said. "I wasn't doing it for a selfish reason. How could I defraud anybody? I was working for free."

He knows, too, that there's a good chance he'll wind up back in prison. In addition to the election fraud, Jones was charged with being a habitual felon, and a conviction on that could result in a sentence of more than seven years.

"I'm trying to fight it," he said. "I don't fear (prison). I'm not afraid of anything. … but my health is bad. It's time for me to get myself right."

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