A former California teacher, Jeffery Scott Jones, who was convicted Wednesday of raping a female relative when she was 13 responded to the jury’s verdict on his crime by producing a razor and slitting his throat in court.


The 56-year-old man remained in the hospital with non life-threatening injuries as of Thursday afternoon. He was taken away bleeding and in handcuffs from the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California, PEOPLE Confirms.

Jones was an out-of-custody defendant who had been free since posting $1 million bail on July 25, 2013. He now faces 68 years to life when he is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4.

Confirming that authorities believe Jones used a razor blade, Stichter tells PEOPLE: “We don’t know if that is something he brought in off the street or if that is something he located once he got into the courthouse. We’re trying to determine that.”

He adds, “The deputies, obviously being all there in the courtroom, were able to render first aid to him.”

At the time of his self-inflicted injury, Jones had just learned of the jury’s verdict convicting him of two felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one felony count of continuous sexual behavior, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news released.