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Jones said a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Now he can concentrate on doing the things he is suppose to be doing.
"God was testing me," he said. "The human part of me wondered which way it would all go. But I was open to God's will. I was ready to accept whatever happened."
However, there were some moments filled with worry, he said. Snce the arrest, Jones married his childhood sweetheart, Octavia, and started nursing school. He said it was difficult to study with the robbery charge hanging over his head.
But he has learned from this experience. He has learned how the criminal justice system works. He has learned to trust in his faith. Both have made him a stronger person.
He feels more confident now working with young gang members and drug abusers. He can relate to their problems with the law.
No grudge is held against the eyewitness who identifeid him as the bandit. This was an honest mistake that went too far, Jones said.
"Now I can get back to my life," he said. "Now I can concentrate on being a good student, husband and minister."
Joyce Mack said it was just a matter of waiting for the truth to emerge.
"you can't tell people about Christ the way Troy does and then go out and rob a place," she said. "That doesn't make any sense"
John Whitside - Columnist
The past 18 months have been more than just strssful for Troy Jones. He said his faith was being tested.
And Jones was ready to accept the outcome either way.
One Sunday in late fall 1994, Jones, 23, who is a youth minister with the Church of God in Joliet, preached a sermon. His message that morning was how Jesus was tried and crucified on false charges.
The next day Jones was arrested by Joliet detectives. At first, he thought he was being arrested for not paying a traffic ticket.
"You know what you did," an officer told him. But Jones didn't know.
He was charged with the armed robber of a credit union: An eyewitness had identified Jones as the bandit with a knife who jumped over a counter and stole about $5,000.
Jones was locked up in the county jail. But the young man's church didn't forget about him. They believed in him. So, the congregation posted his bond.
Two of those church members contacted me. I wrote a column about their stong belief that the youth minister was innocent.
Joyce Mack and Eddie Hodges, who is a church elder, said that Jones was the kind of person who visited the elderly, went to church several times a week and worked good deeds with gang bangers and drug abusers. They said he worked two jobs and had plans to go to nursing school.
"It's impossible that he did this" Mack said then. "He's an excellent young man who has helped lots of young people.
She was absolutle right.
Last week, a Will County jury found Jones not guilty. After a trial, the jury was out for only a couple of hours before bringing back a verdict.
