A Henderson County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Sunday on domestic violence charges.
Gary Jones, 40, was charged with fourth-degree domestic violence with a minor injury, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and harassment with physical contact and no injury.
The warrant included in the case file at the Henderson Circuit Clerk’s office tells the story of a night in which Jones at one point held his wife’s face with his hand and tried to get car keys from her.
The warrant said the night started at a local bar, when Jones was with his wife, Ashley, for a date night. At one point, Jones, who was drinking, got angry as he thought “another guy was trying to talk to her,” said the document.
He had a friend with him, who calmed him down at the bar, but as soon as they were in the car he “started poking at her and questioning everything she did,” according to a statement from Jones’ wife given to Henderson Police Department Officer Kristen Bealmear.
The aggressive behavior continued when the couple got to their home. There, Jones pushed her on the shoulder and continued yelling at her, which included calling her derogatory names.
Upon returning home, Ashley Jones found the couple’s three-year-old son, who was being babysat by a family member. She went upstairs with the child, and Gary Jones followed her and continued the aggressive behavior, before walking downstairs and away from her, according to the warrant.
At that time, she found the car keys in Gary Jones’ pocket and was going to get away, but as she was trying to leave, Gary Jones stood in the doorway, according to the warrant.
She managed to get by him and then eventually to the car while still holding the child. Gary Jones came to the car and “started to grab her face” and “was holding her face back trying to fight her for the car keys,” said the warrant.
According to the report filed by Henderson Police Department, the department that both arrived at the home and later Sunday morning served the warrant, Gary Jones grew angry after a family member said the police had been called.
According to the court documents, the family member told police that Gary Jones said, “I can’t believe you called the police. You just got my job taken away.”
Gary Jones walked off before officers arrived, said the warrant.
A warrant was served on him at 6:43 a.m. Sunday morning. He was booked at the Henderson County Detention Center and later bonded out on $500 bail.
A court appearance is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 11 in Henderson District Court.
Jones is currently involved in a federal lawsuit in which it is alleged he shot at a car and injured a passenger after a July 2025 car chase.
According to witnesses in the federal court filings, Jones had chased the car and then performed a PIT maneuver, which is a pursuit tactic in which a pursuing vehicle strikes the side-rear of the pursued vehicle in attempt to cause the pursued vehicle to swing around and come to a stop.
Jones exited his vehicle and when the car moved toward him, he fired four gunshots at it, according to the court documents. One witness said the first shot was fired while the car was coming at him, but then it veered off and Jones shot three more times, according to court documents.
An internal investigation by the sheriff’s office concluded that Jones shot at a vehicle that was trying to run him over, court documents say.
In Timberlynn Floyd’s civil suit filed in U.S. District Court Western District of Kentucky, the complaint says it was an “unjustified shooting of an innocent passenger during a pursuit that the Sheriff’s Office itself determined never should have occurred.”
Henderson County Sheriff Chip Stauffer told the Hendersonian that Gary Jones is currently suspended without pay. Stauffer declined to say more than that.
