ALEXANDRIA — A local travel team basketball coach has been arrested and charged with raping two girls and is being investigated on allegations of assaulting a third girl.
Marc A. Jones Jr., 27, of Alexandria, was arrested Thursday by the Alexandria Police Department and other local authorities.
Jones raped a player, 14 years old at the time, on a local basketball team in the parking lot of Frankton Elementary School late at night in August 2019, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The girl told investigators that Jones was giving her a ride home from practice when he pulled into the Frankton school parking lot. He then pulled a black handgun from under the driver’s seat, turned off the safety and placed the gun to her head, she said. Jones raped the girl and warned her not to tell anyone or he would hurt her family, according to police.
The victim identified a gun police obtained through a search warrant from Jones’ home, according to the affidavit.
A few months after the first alleged assault, Jones attempted to assault the girl a second time inside the Park Place Community Center, where the team practiced, in Anderson, police said. The girl told police she was able to push him away.
She also said that Jones had asked her to send him nude photos via SnapChat.
The girl disclosed the attacks Wednesday during a forensic interview, police said.
A second victim, a 15-year-old girl who also played on Jones’ team, told police Monday that Jones sexually assaulted her twice in the same day at Park Place Community Center in late December or early January, according to police.
Another incident about a month later, she said, took place in an alley during the evening in Anderson when Jones raped her in the back seat of his car.
The second victim told police she felt intimidated by Jones’ size, listed in a probably cause affidavit at 6-foot-4 and 201 pounds.
Jones told the girl not to say anything because he didn’t want to lose the ability to see his son, police said.
Jones admitted to having a sexual relationship with the second victim and said he was aware that she was a minor, police said. But investigators said he told them that none of the players on the team ever saw his handgun. Jones told police he believed one of the girls was motivated to get him in trouble because he owed money to her family.
Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said Friday that Jones is being investigated on allegations that he attacked a third victim.
The travel team Jones was coaching is not associated with any of the local school systems, according to police.
Jones is charged by Alexandria police with the following: Level 1 felony rape while armed with a deadly weapon; Level 1 felony sexual misconduct with a minor while armed with a deadly weapon; Level 3 felony criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon; Level 5 felony sexual misconduct with a minor; and Level 6 felony pointing a firearm.
In the case of the second alleged victim, the Anderson Police Department has charged Jones with Level 1 felony rape, Level 6 felony criminal confinement and sexual misconduct with a minor.
Criminal Magistrate Jason Childers informed Jones during his initial hearing that the prosecutor’s office was given until May 13 to file formal charges.
Jones was being held Friday in the Madison County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond.
Jones requested a bond reduction during the initial hearing Friday and was told that couldn’t be done until a public defender is appointed.
Childers explained that Madison Circuit Court Judge Angela Warner Sims approved an elevated bond because of the potential harm to the community and because there was more than one alleged victim.
Jones, who played football at Anderson University in 2013 and 2014, told police he has no family in the Madison County area. Jones also played basketball briefly at AU during the 2013-14 season.
His Facebook page indicates he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and also had lived in Chicago.
A notice of trespass was filed against Jones by Ball State University in 2018, alerting the public to notify university police if he was seen on campus. Details about why the notice was filed were not available Friday.
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