A retrial began Monday for the man accused of kidnapping and murder in the slaying of Paige Birgfeld, a mother of three whose skeletal remains were found in 2012.
Jurors were led into the courtroom about 9:15 a.m. to hear the case against 65-year-old Lester Ralph Jones. The trial is the second for Jones after a hung jury in September .
“We are unable to come to a unanimous decision,” the jurors wrote in a note to the court after deliberating for several days in September. “The jury feels we have exhausted our choices.”
Jones is suspected of killing Birgfeld, a 34-year-old mother of three who led a double life as a paid escort, in 2007. He faces accusations of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping.
Prosecutors say Jones set Birgfeld’s car on fire and dumped her body in 2007. She was reported missing in July of that year, and her car was found torched days later, her personal items strewn near U.S. 50.
Birgfeld’s remains were found on March 6, 2012, by a hiker who spotted them in the Wells Gulch area in Delta County.
Jones with Mesa County Sheriff Matt Lewis that while there is a “very circumstantial basis to this case,” he believed authorities had sufficient evidence showing Jones is Birgfeld’s killer.
However, Jones’ defense team, in their closing arguments , said authorities “screwed up the investigation from the get-go,” who could have been responsible for killing Birgfeld.
“At no point can I tell you who the real killer is,” one of his lawyers told jurors. “I don’t know. And thatap a problem.”
Birgfeld sold kitchen products and homemade baby slings from her Grand Junction home and was active in a social group for mothers. She also ran an escort business, called Models Inc., but her double life wasn’t discovered until after she disappeared.
Several men were investigated in connection with Birgfeld’s disappearance and death, including her two ex-husbands.
Jones, who is being held in lieu of $2 million cash bail, has a previous criminal record, including a five-year prison sentence for first-degree assault and second-degree attempted kidnapping.
Jones was interviewed a number of times after Birgfeld’s disappearance, and investigators found he frequently solicited prostitution and patronized Birgfeld’s business, including in the days leading up to her disappearance.
Investigators noted that he was one of the last people to call Birgfeld before she disappeared. Authorities said he seemed nervous when he was first interviewed in the summer of 2007, telling them, “I didn’t do it.”
