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Steven Jones trial update: Deliberations begin for NAU shooting suspect

Posted at 3:38 PM, Apr 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-25 20:41:34-04

Jurors have begun deliberating at the trial of a former Northern Arizona University student charged with murder and aggravated assault for fatally shooting one student and wounding three others during a 2015 confrontation near campus.

Lawyers made closing arguments Tuesday at the trial of 20-year-old Steven Jones.

Prosecutors say Jones acted as the aggressor after being punched in the face during the confrontation by returning to his car to retrieve the gun he would use in the shooting death of Colin Brough.

Prosecutor Ammon Barker repeatedly sought to undercut the key argument put forth by Steven Jones -- that he was acting in self-defense when he opened fire.

Barker said Jones escalated the situation by going back to his car to retrieve his gun after getting punched in the face. He said Jones was carrying out "his own deranged sense of justice."

Attorney Burges McCowan told jurors Tuesday that his client Steven Jones acted reasonably in defending himself when he was accosted by a drunken group of strangers, punched in the face and chased by some members of the group.

The shooting killed Brough and wounded Nicholas Piring, Nicholas Prato and Kyle Zeintek.

 

Prosecutors argue Jones wasn't justified in using lethal force.