The boy was 11 when prosecutors said he broke through a closet wall and escaped from a second-story window.
NEWNAN, Ga. — A Georgia woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to 20 charges tied to years of abuse of her adopted son, whose 2023 escape through a closet wall triggered the investigation that led to her prosecution.
Chloe Jackson-Jones, 42, pleaded guilty Sept. 30 in Coweta County Superior Court to aggravated assault by strangulation, two counts of false imprisonment and 17 counts of first-degree cruelty to children, according to the Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. Superior Court Judge Markette Baker sentenced Jackson-Jones to 40 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation under a negotiated plea agreement. Prosecutors said each cruelty count involved a separate act of abuse.
The case began on July 5, 2023, when the boy, then 11, escaped from Jackson-Jones’ Newnan home. Prosecutors said he had been confined inside a bedroom closet and broke through sheetrock to get into the adjoining room. He then left through a second-story window. A neighborhood resident later spotted the child walking along the street and called 911 after learning he was hungry. Authorities said the boy weighed 61 pounds when he was found.
Newnan police opened an investigation, and the child was placed in the custody of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. Prosecutors said investigators later recovered photographs and videos from Jackson-Jones’ cellphone that supported the boy’s account of prolonged mistreatment. Authorities said the evidence documented food deprivation, prolonged confinement, physical assaults, restraint and other forms of abuse. Prosecutors also said the boy had been strangled until he lost consciousness. The more disturbing details of the evidence were not necessary to establish the scope of the criminal case.
Jackson-Jones had adopted the boy in May 2019, when he was 8 years old, prosecutors said. Authorities said the abusive treatment began early in the placement and became systematic by 2020. Prosecutors said Jackson-Jones removed the child from public school for virtual learning before later describing his education as homeschooling, leaving him with less regular contact with people outside the home. The investigation ultimately resulted in the series of felony charges that Jackson-Jones resolved through her guilty plea.
Because Jackson-Jones pleaded guilty, prosecutors did not have to present the full case to a jury, and the boy did not have to testify at a criminal trial about the abuse. The District Attorney’s Office said that was one consideration in accepting the negotiated agreement. District Attorney Herb Cranford said prosecutors would have sought a life sentence if state law had allowed that punishment for the offenses involved. The agreement instead resulted in the 40-year prison term and an additional 20 years of probation.
The plea also resolved questions about Jackson-Jones’ criminal responsibility for the charged conduct without requiring jurors to decide the case. Unlike an allegation made before trial, a guilty plea is an admission to the offenses listed in the plea. Jackson-Jones admitted to the 17 cruelty counts, the aggravated assault charge and both false imprisonment counts. Prosecutors said the evidence supporting those charges included material recovered from her phone as well as the investigation that followed the boy’s escape.
The child, whose name has not been publicly released because he is a minor victim of abuse, is now 14. Prosecutors said he gave a victim-impact statement during Jackson-Jones’ sentencing but did not publicly disclose its contents. Authorities said he is now living in a stable home and earning all A’s in school. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that he is living with a new adoptive family and that his sister is also in the home.
The circumstances of the boy’s escape became a central part of the case because they brought the alleged abuse to the attention of people outside the household. Prosecutors said his decision to break through the closet wall and leave through the window led directly to the encounter with the neighborhood resident, the 911 call and the police investigation. The child was removed from Jackson-Jones’ care after authorities intervened.
Jackson-Jones now faces decades in state custody before the probationary portion of her sentence. Her Sept. 30 guilty plea ended the criminal prosecution without a trial, while the boy continues living outside her care. Prosecutors said his circumstances have changed significantly in the more than three years since his escape and that he is doing well in his current home.
Author note: Last updated October 9, 2026.