- 2 days ago
After being sucker punched during a campus gathering, Northern Arizona University freshman Steven Jones shoots four fellow students, injuring three and killing one.
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00:00it's incredibly rare for murder defendants to take the stand it's a risk very few take at stake
00:17their freedom or even their lives i kind of panicked i was really really scared i was
00:25freaking out this is stephen jones something went wrong and then some shots were fired
00:31he's charged with killing 20-year-old colin brew seriously injuring three of brew's fraternity
00:36brothers right shot to both of them yes they both go down yes can he convince 12 jurors that he was
00:43justified in shooting four fellow northern arizona university students i knew that if i waited even
00:52another split second i would get seriously hurt or die or will the prosecution convince them jones
00:58is guilty of first-degree murder aggravated assault the defendant was an assassin emerging from the
01:03darkness it was not self-defense
01:09was premeditated murder take a courtside seat through the eyes of the judge cases where you have these
01:16horrific homicides that occur they rip a hole in the curtain of the cosmos the private investigator
01:25everybody was affected by this and and everybody paid a price the responding officer i remember
01:30steven walking towards me with his hands raised up in the air saying that he was the shooter
01:34the legal analyst following the case is mr jones telling the truth or is he acting and the reporter
01:40who covered the trial there were 12 angry people that came out of that jury room i'm dan abrams
01:46and this is taking the stand raise your right do you solemnly swear i'm being honest with everything
01:53i say to you do solemnly swear the whole truth and nothing but the i would like to testify the
01:57testimony you are about to kill the truth and nothing but the truth so how you got
02:02young men with guns and alcohol and drugs it was a combination of all of those factors
02:19that just in a horrible instant came together there were so many things that people saw from
02:24different angles that it would be hard to say exactly what happened and they couldn't all they
02:30know for sure one young man dead three wounded one other guy holding a gun i thought they were going
02:35to get my gun and kill me with it stephen jones is charged with one count of first degree murder
02:47and six counts of aggravated assault he faces up to life in prison for what the prosecution calls
02:53an unjustified shooting the defendant chambered around racked that gun turned on that light he was
03:00armed for battle but it was a battle only he knew about jones's defense claims he had no choice but
03:08to defend himself it certainly was not a case of premeditation this was a case of a young man
03:14doing what he had to do to defend himself on the evening of october 8 2015 stephen jones was with his
03:27three friends shay mcconnell jacob mike and hunter todd jones was the designated driver and had parked his
03:34car in the mountain view parking lot stephen jones was a freshman he was 19 years old he was from glendale
03:41which is a suburb of phoenix he had been homeschooled he was interested in photography
03:48he was pledging a fraternity sigma chi and the fellows he was with on that night were also pledging
03:54and that's how they knew each other so what was the plan that night we just finished studying our
03:59pledge test and we planned on going to the grove and then from the grove we heard of a courtyard party
04:06and then headed that way the courtyard is an apartment complex to the north of mountain view
04:14technically it's off campus and several hundred feet uh to its east the courtyard was home to
04:20several fraternities and other students colin brew a junior who was studying business and played lacrosse
04:28was residing there with some of his delta chi fraternity brothers jones and his three friends
04:33walked down franklin avenue to their right the courtyard across the street northern arizona
04:39university's campus what if anything did you notice as you approach mountain view nothing in particular
04:47just um down down franklin avenue there's all there was a lot of noise and a lot of you know parties
04:54going on in the apartments there at this point hunter todd splits off from the group we lost track of
05:00hunter um we couldn't find where he was so what happens from that point we decided to stop and try
05:05to call him and get him on the phone because we didn't want to just leave without him where were
05:08you when she was trying to call him on the phone and you're standing there with jake we were in front
05:13of the courtyard as they're standing there all of a sudden everything blew up i heard a commotion behind
05:20me like all of a sudden there was like a whole lot of voices and then i turned around and there was
05:25just a whole bunch of people a whole bunch of dudes and they were screaming and yelling and stuff and
05:30um next thing i know i just got punched where were you punched in the mouth it just rocked my world
05:38like it was really hard there was only one person that punched anybody in the face that night
05:43and it was austin contraris who is not one of the victims in this case i decided to punch someone
05:48why did you do that i was drunk something stupid after he punched the defendant in the face he ran off
05:57from that area had no further interaction with that confrontation that sucker punch is what set
06:03everything off it spilled out into the street and then it spilled into uh the parking lot and onto a
06:10sidewalk of a separate building this was a moving event what happens next changes the course of multiple
06:17lives but without any video of what actually occurred each moment will ultimately have to be
06:24dissected heavily in court i don't think the entire event really took more than about five to eight
06:31minutes to occur and that was just how fast things happen out of the blue here's what's known
06:38after being punched in the face stephen jones went to his car somebody in that situation that gets
06:44away from an attack should keep going they should run away not get a gun and come back while in the
06:51vehicle went to the glove compartment took out the firearm and then decided to come out of the vehicle
06:57and then start shooting stephen jones shot colin brew once in the right side of his chest and once in
07:05the right clavicle he then shot nick peering in the right upper arm and the left hip there's a guy
07:13outside and he's shooting people moments later stephen jones fired his gun again this time shooting
07:20nick prato in the neck and kyle zintek twice in the back no i just heard gunshots and i just see people
07:25laying down in the parking lot a few minutes later nau security and flagstaff police arrive at the scene
07:33six or four multiple victims upon my arrival i took out my rifle and i expected to shoot somebody
07:38who was presenting a danger to either myself or any other student at the time and i was surprised
07:43looking through my scope to see hands raised up in the air walking straight towards me on the ground
07:51and that ended up being stephen is your name stephen yes sir i have one detained he identified himself as a
07:55shooter three of the four victims all juniors and all delta chi fraternity brothers multiple victims
08:03i'm gonna need at least three or four ambulances are taken to flagstaff medical center and treated for
08:08injuries it was the most painful thing but i didn't feel a thing i just couldn't move and i was lying on
08:16the ground told my roommate to call the police and i ran to the first person who was on the ground and
08:21that would be nick peering and we put a tourniquet on nick's arm i wasn't too long after that where
08:26i heard the three numbers on the radio 901 901 um that means dead body the fourth victim also a delta
08:35chi fraternity brother colin brew dies at the scene he was uh bleeding pretty bad and i just remember them
08:42still screaming is he breathing is he breathing they covered his body with a blanket how many gun
08:51shots do you think i heard one two three four five six seven how many casings do we have so far
08:57i got four right here nau has never seen anything like that and i think it was just surprising to a
09:05lot of the folks in flagstaff our hearts are hurting because none of them deserved it and none of them
09:11wanted to put anyone in danger when you have a case like this and someone is dead everyone wants
09:18to turn it into a black and white parable of good and bad in this case stephen jones is the bad guy
09:27stephen jones is taken into custody and charged with one count of first degree murder and six counts of
09:32aggravated assault his bail is set at two million dollars he pleads not guilty but while the nau
09:40and flagstaff community grieves i know you're watching right now i want you to know we will
09:47always love you information is released that seems like it could help support stephen jones's self-defense
09:54arguments oh my god hang on oh my god you know you have two stories is that we took the lone wolf out
10:01of the picture and so everyone is safe which is a better story than frat boys are going to beat up
10:08your your sons and daughters when you send them to college why why did they do that it was less black
10:15and white on october 9th of 2015 there's a guy outside and he's shooting people
10:31four nau students were shot three seriously injured
10:35in one dive steven was taken into custody by nau pd officers oh my god oh my god he stopped his
10:47action with his handguns as our officer arrived he was able to take him into custody
10:56the shooter steven jones has been charged with one count of first degree murder and six counts of
11:00aggravated assault he faces the possibility of life in prison without parole and he's pleaded not
11:06guilty claiming self-defense weeks after the shooting a string of new information is released
11:14which could help jones's self-defense argument this seemed to be portrayed as another mass school
11:20shooting this case was different it wasn't some crazed gunman who just decided i'm going to open up
11:28my glove box and start shooting this was a specific circumstance that started with kind of a street
11:34brawl on november 20th jones's full statement to police is released in it he claims the students
11:41were charging him when he fired but i have a gun don't move and then
11:51one of those two guys that that's i was right here in front of my car if they'll kill you two of them
11:56right there are things that you always find uh beyond what the original investigation showed
12:04and it may change the story this was not first degree murder it wasn't a delivered act as things
12:10unraveled you came to find out it was a shooting that was provoked and where you have a student that
12:16is saying that i had to protect my life and the ones of my friends as it went on we got more and more
12:22information on november 30th toxicology reports revealed that all four victims had blood alcohol
12:30levels over the legal limit to drive the toxicology was important it helps paint the picture of what
12:38was happening that night and you know frankly it also illustrates the fact about what might impair
12:44their judgment stephen jones out of all the people that were present he was the only one that had not
12:49been drinking alcohol was not under the influence of drugs after the shooting delta kai released a
12:55brief statement confirming that while its members were involved in the shooting quote this incident had
13:01no ties to the chapter but the reputation of the courtyard as well as the people who may have attacked
13:08jones and his friends were put into question courtyard had a reputation for um for being rowdy
13:15there was a history at this location the flagstaff police had been there on multiple occasions
13:28there was a lot of partying that went on there were other fights oh that showed up in the police
13:34record there body cam footage is also released showing stephen jones moments after police arrived
13:42i was so scared if you've seen that video of stephen jones right after he's arrested
13:57he is hyper ventilating he is screaming
14:02you could feel the agony and the pain put your hands together like this
14:07you could hear it in his voice i don't think there's any doubt at this point that he was attacked
14:20by individuals outside that parking lot and then chased into that parking lot
14:26but just because he said those things doesn't mean that it automatically will come into evidence
14:32before any trial there's always pre-trial motions the judge listens to the motions from the prosecution
14:39and the defense about what should come into evidence or should not come into evidence on march 23rd judge
14:46slayton meets with both the state and the defense to go over possible evidence and in a setback for the
14:53defense most of jones's statements after he was arrested are not allowed in the trial i'm going to
14:59rule that those are uh self-serving hearsay statements those are statements that were made
15:05afterwards they were statements of i believe remorse but they are not statements that really should
15:11be considered by the jury at this time statements of a defendant can't be used as a means of what we
15:16call self-serving hearsay if they are trying to in essence decrease or escape culpability the defense
15:23is also prevented from including any testimony about the reputation of the courtyard either the defense
15:29wanted to bring in the history of the type of police calls you know assaults disorderly conduct
15:36those kinds of things under our rules of evidence you just can't individualize from a blanket generalization
15:44you had an overzealous prosecutor he was trying to keep so much stuff out this trial was stacked
15:51i'm not saying that stephen jones was innocent but i felt that the trial was stacked in april 2016
15:59after spending about six months in jail jones is released to his parents while he awaits trial
16:05around this time delta chi is put on social probation through december 31st 2016 and sigma chi
16:13receives a letter of warning that their conduct violated university rules both fraternities agree
16:19to educate their members about hosting unregistered events and said they'd take part in a risk management
16:25committee and a year later members of the courtroom cannot be seated on april 5th of 2017 the trial of
16:34arizona versus stephen jones begins
16:40this trial was the battle of the narrative
16:44you're talking about two different versions of what transpired in october of 2015.
16:51you have the defense saying that they acted in self-defense i thought they would either
16:59beat me up right there on the spot or they would get my gun and shoot me with it one of the two men
17:05looked like he lunged towards stephen you have the prosecution saying that stephen jones acted in
17:12retaliation stephen jones turned on the mag light on his pistol pointed it at colin and it was in the
17:18stance uh rage shoot it makes it difficult for the jury because who do i believe which witness should i
17:24believe is this witness lying an attorney doesn't have the ability to to tell the defendant not to take
17:32the stand in stephen jones case though this was a self-defense claim everyone knew that stephen jones was
17:39going to have to take the stand
17:48kahn was unarmed he had nothing in his hands and that he said nothing aggressive to the defendant
17:52before the defendant shot him down it's been a year and a half since stephen jones shot four fellow nau
17:59students killing one and injuring three during that time key pieces of evidence have been scrutinized
18:06and challenged mr jones was facing first-degree murder and then he was charged with multiple
18:18counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous or deadly weapon so he was facing life without the
18:23possibility of parole stephen jones's future will be in the hands of a jury will they believe he was
18:29truly in fear for his safety or life or will they find him guilty of premeditated murder when we're
18:37talking about cases dealing with self-defense
18:42it's almost impossible for a defendant to succeed without taking the stand you have to say i was in
18:49fear of my life you have to convince the jury that anyone else would think this was a life-threatening
18:56situation
19:00your next witness your honor the defense called stephen jones stephen jones was quiet he appeared
19:07focused stephen jones was ready to get on the stand and tell the jury what happened
19:17what he believed happened hello my name is stephen jones
19:2020 year old jones faces the possibility of life in prison and begins his effort to tell the jury his
19:27account of what happened and why i heard a commotion behind me and then i turned around and there was
19:33just a whole bunch of people a whole bunch of dudes and they were screaming and yelling and next thing i
19:38know i just got punched in the mouth it just rocked my world it knocked my glasses off everything went dark
19:46what's the very next thing you remember three or four guys started chasing me from that first punch
19:53and then i started running toward mountain view why were you running to mountain that was where the uh
19:59the active members of sigma chi were and i figured you know if i could just get inside to safety then
20:05they could probably protect me what happened i realized i didn't have authorization on my key card to
20:10get into mountain view so i kind of stopped to look back and then i didn't see anyone at first so i
20:16started walking back toward my friends jake and shay we got pushed on the ground initially both me and
20:22shay once we got into that sidewalk area based on what you observed at that point what concerns did you
20:28have about their safety um i thought they were going to get beat up really bad and it was in that moment
20:35those guys who were chasing me started running at me again so i started running i was really really
20:40scared and i was freaking out i just uh decided i turned right and ran toward my car what happened
20:48as you're running towards your car um they're still chasing me um at that point and you know
20:54saying all kinds of stuff you know kill you stuff like that i'm going to kill you the huge buzzwords when
21:01it comes to deciding whether a person was justified and using deadly physical force what happens once
21:07you get to your car sitting in the driver's seat i realized oh my god you know i have to do something
21:13so i got the gun out of my glove box i turned the flashlight on and i got out of the car those guys
21:19who were chasing me were there how far you were from these two guys at that point it seemed at the time
21:24five or ten feet the two people that jones claimed were chasing him were colin brew and nick peering i
21:32said don't move i have a gun get down how did they response the one on the right calling he said i'll
21:38kill you and the one on the left called me a or something and then they charged at me the one on
21:43the right lunged toward me and what did you observe specifically as say he lunges at you they were
21:51running as fast as they could full force looking me dead in the eye i knew that if i waited even
21:57another split second i would get seriously hurt or die because they were right there on top of me
22:03and then what's the very next thing that you remember i fired
22:09fired shots at both of them yes the first shots end up killing colin brew and injuring nick peering
22:17what's the very next thing that you do i tucked the gun in the back of my waistband and i ran over
22:21to the one on the right because i'm first aid certified so i went over to try to treat his wounds
22:27is that individual leader come to know that's colin brew yes and what happens as you're kneeling down
22:33trying to give aid to mr brew as soon as i did that there was another guy right there next to him
22:39and uh he goes what the is wrong with you you psycho and he pushes me backwards then what happens
22:44someone from behind me ran up and tried to grab the gun from my waistband as soon as that happened
22:52all the rest of them kind of just piled on top of me you know kicking and punching and wailing and one
22:57guy was stomping on my stomach and they were screaming you shot my friend you psycho you know i'll
23:03you up but i'll kill you you know i was screaming as loud as i could help help you know like a really
23:10high loud loud screamed like um you know i thought they were going to get my gun and kill me with it
23:17i held on for my life and i just um it was getting increasingly desperate one of them was still
23:24pulling on the gun and i just knew that i wasn't going to be able to break free so i pulled the gun
23:29upward out of my pants what did you do with it i fired in the air to try to get them to run away
23:34were you trying to hit anybody no these shots end up injuring nicholas prado and kyle zintek
23:41and stephen jones's testimony paints a picture that he had no choice to fire his gun to defend himself
23:48after i broke free i stood up and um backed away toward the corner of that parking lot
23:56stephen jones was calm and have you know a consistent a consistent story but that's just
24:04the defense's version of events the prosecution will challenge it all to the victims the defendant
24:10was an assassin emerging from the darkness you're rolling the dice when you decide to take the stand
24:16because with any testimony from any witness you also get cross-examined and they will use stephen
24:22jones's own testimony against him how much space was there in that actuality i learned it was 90 feet
24:28so you were just dead wrong on that i suppose so yes
24:39i fired fired shot to both of them yes the jury has heard stephen jones's testimony claiming he had
24:46no choice but to defend his life when he shot four northern arizona university students injuring three
24:52killing one i knew that if i didn't fire right then i would get seriously hurt or die there was no
24:59doubt in my mind but in a self-defense case just as in every other case the burden of proof is on the
25:07prosecution the prosecution had to show that not only was it a murder but it was a first-degree murder
25:14with intentionality and they had to prove that there was no self-defense in this case
25:23the defendant stephen jones murdered a young man and seriously injured three others because his pride
25:31was hurt what the defendant did was not an accident it was not self-defense this was aggravated assault
25:39and it was premeditated murder the state tries to make the case that jones knew the potential
25:48consequences of his actions you've been trained with a gun isn't that right you've been shooting
25:52since you were eight or nine yes my dad taught me he was certified by um the nra and gun site to teach
26:02police officers and deputies and civilians handgun safety and basic training and you did competition
26:09shooting as well yes what do you think happens when you shoot someone in the chest um they get seriously
26:15hurt that's what you think happens every time sometimes people who get shot in the chest die
26:21as the prosecution continues to cross-examine jones they try to show the jury multiple inconsistencies
26:30in his testimony when you were at your car you got your gun out of your glove box right correct and
26:37was a magazine already in it yes and then you racked the slide right yes and what does that do to the
26:44gun it makes it ready to fire it puts around into the chamber then you yelled you have a gun right
26:52correct and there was nobody around you right no there were those two guys that i mentioned
26:58where out the driver's side door how far away at the time it seemed like 10 or 15 feet how much space
27:04was there in that actuality i learned it was 90 feet later okay so you were just dead wrong on that
27:13i suppose so yes where were they exactly when you say they're 90 feet away where were they
27:20i don't really remember exactly i mean you told the police that you were alone in your car right
27:24correct i think so i think i said that nobody was there i mean is there something else that we should
27:29know is it was anyone there struggling over the gun with you uh not while i was in the car okay you
27:34continue to say that you were right in front of your car but actually they were 90 feet away from you
27:38correct 90 feet to get back to these victims that was all time that he had to think about what he was
27:48going to do and they called that premeditation what the prosecution is arguing is that stephen jones
27:56thought about his actions but distance is not the only thing that doesn't add up in jones's
28:03story when you shot colin brew and nick peering you described seeing their eyes right correct
28:10you were able to see in the dark and so without your glasses their eyes as they came toward you
28:14correct that's a little inconsistent with what you described other times about how you couldn't see
28:20when you agree to further their argument the state challenges jones's account of firing into
28:26the air with his gun when he claims he was tackled how many times did you shoot in the air i don't
28:33remember and how did you point your hand up upward can you demonstrate yeah just straight above your
28:40head uh not fully extended kind of bent a little bit and pointing the gun right in the air i believe
28:47so yes and nick prado how do you account for how he got shot through the neck i have no idea or
28:53kyle zentek in the back um i didn't know at the time when you shoot someone in the back that's not
28:59shooting in the air let's talk about some of the things you could have done that night could have
29:04called the police right i i didn't think i could have you could have locked the door to your car i
29:10couldn't have you couldn't have locked the door to your car no you didn't have the ability to lock
29:15the door inside your car i didn't think i could have as you sit here today you know you could have
29:19right i think i probably could have you could have armed yourself and then gotten out of the car
29:24and when you discovered that nobody was around you you could have just stayed there right i couldn't
29:29just abandon my friends arguably somebody in that situation that gets away from an attack
29:38should keep going and not get a gun and come back
29:42and that was certainly the state's position in addition to trying to discredit stephen jones's
29:57account of acting in self-defense the prosecution questions whether his friends really felt threatened
30:04at all there was no point where i thought i was in any situation where my life was at stake no did
30:11anyone at that point say we're gonna kill you no i was scared of who steven
30:26you continue to say that you were right in front of your car but actually they were 90 feet away from
30:30you correct during cross the prosecution was able to get jones to admit he was 90 feet away from his
30:36victims which they believe gave him enough time to think about his actions they also got him to admit
30:42that he didn't attempt to flee what he perceived to be a hostile environment you could have stayed inside
30:48your car i could have and with the testimony of the survivors and the key eyewitnesses the state hopes
30:53to prove that no one ever attacked stephen jones after that initial sucker punch colin uh put his hands
31:03up in like a questioning um manner there was a high intensity light shining on him so he was kind of
31:11disoriented would you describe it as aggressive or lunging or anything like that no i saw him fall and
31:18i sprinted and jumped over the bushes and why'd you do that to get to call him the survivors also
31:23claimed they were targeted that jones wasn't shooting into the air while he was allegedly being
31:28attacked i took a couple steps forward i was looking down the barrel of his gun what happened next i got
31:37shot through the neck when he turned to run what happened at that point uh when i turned around to run
31:44i just felt something i think i took maybe one or two more steps and i was lying on the ground
31:57in rebuttal the defense questions nick peering about the statement he gave police the night of the
32:03shooting in terms of nick peering the night of the shooting shortly thereafter when he's interviewed by
32:10officers he gives a different statement than he gave while he was on the stand told the police a
32:16pretty different story that night didn't you what did i tell them when you spoke to the police you
32:21told them that you ran up because you're trying to calm people down mainly trying to calm colin down that
32:27is correct because i didn't know who the other people were you tell the police and so i was like i was
32:34trying to calm people down and i went over there and i was like hey calm down calm down he said step
32:41back now when you say he said step back you're referring to the person who had the flashlight correct
32:46correct he said step back at the exact moment he said step back i jumped from the top to the lower part
32:54and that's when i got shot those were the words that you gave these make this all happen aren't they correct
33:03peering statement to police which reveals that he was trying to calm colin brew down and that he
33:09himself jumped from the sidewalk toward jones contradicts his testimony in court that he and brew were not
33:17threatening jones whatsoever so when you're dealing with witnesses that gave statements on the day of
33:23the incident and then testifying differently the jury is left to have to decide where's your allegiance
33:30are you biased as to the victim or to stephen jones all these different factors play a role in the
33:37credibility of each witness to demonstrate that the surviving fraternity brothers were in fact
33:42accidentally shot while jones was trying to defend himself the defense calls detective casey rucker
33:49who investigated the crime scene you recognize those photos i do those photos you took of the
33:56at the scene they are what are we looking at here we're looking at a tree that's located to the south
34:02of the uh parking lot what the defense wanted to show with there's no way that stephen jones is trying to
34:08shoot the three victims who survived one of the things that i thought was very interesting
34:15was this one little photograph and that was a broken branch we saw that close-up of the break
34:23fair says pretty fresh break of that branch it looked like it kind of gave consistency to mr jones
34:29deal of i'm trying to shoot i'm not trying to shoot at anybody as these folks were jostling and he was
34:35being jostled around this bullet hit this branch the importance of this tree is that that's right behind
34:41where kyle zintec is they're documenting this tree because that branch got shot that's one of the
34:47other bullets that they haven't accounted for for you they couldn't find him because he shot in the
34:51air he's being tackled as he's trying to get away and shoot in the air and that's how kyle zintec gets
34:57shot that's how prado gets shot and that's how this tree got shot there were so many different
35:02versions of what happened there was so much misinformation nobody saw the same thing
35:11out of the multitude of witnesses that testified for the prosecution and for the defense only one
35:16person was able to tell you what happened from the beginning to the end and that was the defendant
35:22stephen jones by taking the stand
35:27stephen waited until the last moment colin brew he was leaning forward charging downhill and that's
35:34important because you have to look at it from stephen's perception and from his perception he's gone up to
35:39these guys and they are charging at him getting very close leaning forward if stephen had waited any
35:49longer he might not be here today the defendant couldn't wait to shoot his gun not a second thought
35:57to call the police or to drive away his first thought was to retaliate there's nothing we can do now to
36:06stop what the defendant did that night but there's something that you can do today right now find him
36:13guilty on all of the charges almost two years after that chaotic night on the ground on the ground
36:23stephen jones's fate is now in the hands of the jury we take 12 people who probably have never even fired a
36:31gun we present to them words and pictures and we ask them to recreate an event that they never saw and then
36:38they need to make a judgment
36:50for eight days the jury has heard testimony from 37 witnesses and the defendant himself stephen jones
36:58he said i'll kill you and then they charged at me the prosecution has to prove the case beyond a
37:04reasonable doubt so has the defense presented enough to at least lead the jurors to seriously
37:10question whether this was self-defense says stephen jones has claimed fired his gun and killed colin brew
37:17and injured three of colin's friends stephen wasn't planning on killing anyone he was trying to stop the
37:24immediate threat two guys charging him or will the jurors side with the prosecution who say that jones
37:31made the deadly decision to retaliate after getting punched the defendant wanted to show people that
37:38he had the power and he knew he could do that with that gun in his hand on april 25 2017 the jury is
37:48dismissed to begin deliberations which lasts for five days i asked 12 citizens to consider all of the
37:56evidence and to render a verdict that they believe was consistent with the evidence showed there was
38:03some back and forth with the jury and asking questions there was a lot of time that we were
38:09sitting waiting for this
38:13the jury had argued over it that they had considered it that they had done their very best to try and reach
38:19a decision in that case this court is therefore going to declare a mistrial in this case but you
38:27know they couldn't reach a unanimous decision i don't know that we were expecting a hung jury but we
38:36weren't surprised either the mistrial didn't surprise me because it was pretty clear from the evidence that
38:42we saw that reasonable people could disagree on whether or not it was a deliberate act whether or
38:49not it was self-defense members of the jury i have to imagine that some of you may feel disappointed
38:54that you were unable to reach a verdict you didn't fail we all selected you because we believe that you
39:00were people who would stick to the courage of your convictions and you did another trial is scheduled
39:07where the prosecution and defense will have to present their arguments to an entirely new jury but
39:12this second trial never happens once the state said that they were going to go ahead with a second trial
39:20one of the things that the defense team wanted to know was what happened in the jury in this case we
39:26talked to a number of the jurors who were willing to talk to us among the things that we learned was that
39:31the jury had decided this case was not about first degree murder and their struggle was whether
39:38it was something else was it second degree murder or was he justified completely and should be acquitted
39:45the state decides to drop the first degree murder charge to second degree murder that decision
39:51changed everything about this case and it opened up the opportunity to have a settlement discussion as
39:57well i mean we were very close to going to trial i was sitting here at my desk it was
40:01towards the end of the afternoon and i think my ja called me up and said they reached a plea
40:06she didn't even tell me who i just knew she just said they reached a plea the agreement ultimately was
40:12that stephen would plead to manslaughter and three counts of aggravated assault opposed to going to
40:19trial on second degree murder stephen jones acknowledged that he had some responsibility for what
40:26happened that night and he was willing to accept the consequences and manslaughter most closely matched
40:36what he was responsible for the most amount of time that he could do was up to 10 years
40:43all right on february 11th of 2020 five years after the shooting at northern arizona university
40:55stephen jones is back in court to hear his sentence family members of the victims are permitted to make
41:01statements to the court i was unable to find my way back to living without colin i couldn't sleep or be
41:09awake without the knowledge of them and being gone the pain was excruciating and never ending to me
41:16judges are human literally tears were coming down my face to me it was just a sense of of utter loss
41:22that our community had experienced that these families had experienced stephen jones also made a
41:27statement if it were possible i would in a heartbeat right now just trade places with colin brew
41:36if he could be at home with his family and i could be dead i would do that
41:42no sense that i'm going to pronounce here um i'm not kidding myself i'm going to flatter myself or
41:49anyone here thinking that it's going to bring peace or closure it's not going to happen today
41:53has to count one manslaughter it is the judgment of the score that you be sentenced to a slightly
41:58aggravated term of six years in the arizona department of corrections best accounts three five
42:03and seven consideration of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances it is the judgment of
42:08this court sentence of five years on each of those counts all counts as indicated by the plea
42:13agreement shall run concurrent to each other stephen jones will serve six years in prison
42:21victims and the family members of victims who are here today clearly disappointed they were hoping
42:25that stephen jones would be sentenced to the maximum possible penalty 10 years in prison there's a lot
42:31that's sad about this in the end you have two families who lost a son you have all of these lives
42:39that have been changed forever defendants are never forced to take the stand but that decision is
42:45likely the biggest one they'll ever make for taking the stand i'm dan abrams
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