File 2006 / WFAA-TV

Christie Bundren McKindra, right, was at the wheel during the kidnap ordeal as Samuel Scott Jones called the shots.

McKINNEY – When a man who admitted kidnapping a truck driver and forcing her to drive the rig at gunpoint was sentenced Thursday, there were tears and plenty of sniffling in the gallery. But his girlfriend didn't move.

Even when state District Judge Greg Brewer read the second sentence – life – Crystal Jones remained still.

And as bailiffs led Samuel Scott Jones away in handcuffs, the mother of his two children simply continued to look at the jury. Smelling salts made Ms. Jones blink but did little to shake her shock.

Nearly an hour after the Collin County jurors made their decision, paramedics rolled Ms. Jones out of the courthouse on a gurney with her family rushing to keep up.

Earlier this week, Mr. Jones, 33, pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for trying to carjack a man and then kidnapping the man's mother-in-law in July 2006.

The jury deliberated for five hours before deciding to sentence Mr. Jones to 99 years for the aggravated assault charge and life for the kidnapping, which was followed by a three-county police chase. The sentences will be served concurrently, and his first opportunity for parole will be in 30 years.

"There's no more we can do," Mr. Jones' sister, Charlet Hill, told Ms. Jones after the verdict. "Let it go now."

Christie Bundren McKindra didn't celebrate the life sentence of the man who held her captive last summer. But she pointed out that he brought it on himself.

"I'm sorry for what he got, but he had choices," Mrs. McKindra said from the victims' assistance room in the courthouse. "There are others out there who have a rough life. But he had no right to do that. He put himself [in prison]."

Mr. Jones' attorneys described him as a humble, broken man who was depressed and suicidal. He admitted his guilt and is asking for mercy, Mitch Nolte said during his closing arguments.

"He is not a mastermind criminal," Mr. Nolte said. "He's more of a bumbler. This was a very disorganized, unplanned episode."

Police say Mr. Jones' crime spree last summer started in Duncanville when he stole a pickup, which was later discovered abandoned in Carrollton. Mr. Jones still faces charges of aggravated robbery in Dallas County in connection with that incident.

In Carrollton, Mr. Jones carjacked a Lexus, which he wrecked, police say. A man who stopped to help was also carjacked by Mr. Jones. From there he drove to a Collin County truck stop, where he tried to steal the car of Eddie and Melanie Jimenez, who were waiting for Ms. Jimenez's mother to arrive in her 18-wheeler.

They got away. But as Mrs. McKindra parked her rig, Mr. Jones jumped into the cab, pointed the gun at her and ordered her to drive.

So she drove for miles down highways and weaved through narrow streets hardly big enough for the tractor-trailer. Hours later, with the tires shot out and the truck unable to move, Mrs. McKindra grabbed Mr. Jones' gun, jumped out of the truck and ran toward police with television news cameras capturing all the action.

It was all part of Mr. Jones' inexplicable plan to kill himself or have someone else do it, said another of his attorneys, Derk Wadas.

"His goal was to end his life: suicide by cop," Mr. Wadas said.

During his closing arguments, prosecutor Scott Becker referred to a letter that Mr. Jones wrote to his girlfriend after being jailed. In it, Mr. Jones said he broke the gun when he wrecked the Lexus.

"You don't get credit for breaking the gun you're using to hijack someone," Mr. Becker said.

Defense attorneys said the gun was not loaded and Mrs. McKindra was never in danger of being shot.

Even if Mr. Jones chose not to put bullets in the gun, Mr. Becker said, he never told any of his victims that. Mr. Jimenez thought there were bullets in the gun that was pointed at him at the truck stop. And his mother-in-law, Mrs. McKindra, believed the gun was loaded for the hours she was forced to drive her truck.

"I don't care about there not being any bullets in the gun," Mrs. McKindra said. "I didn't know that. If I had, we never would have left that parking lot. No one takes the time to ask if that gun's loaded when it's pointed at you."