Man gets 10-year sentence for having gun during deadly shooting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) -
A man who admitted to illegally having a gun during a deadly shooting received a decade-long prison sentence.
Judge Joshua Devine sentenced Steven S. Jones to 10 years in prison on Thursday morning. Jones pleaded guilty in January to unlawful possession of a gun following a shooting outside Jake's Bar on St. Charles Road in 2024 just outside Columbia city limits. Family and loved ones at the hearing identified the victim to ABC 17 News as Bryan Young.
Boone County sheriff's deputies arrested Jones shortly after the shooting on December 12, 2024. Deputies said surveillance footage showed Jones pull a gun out of his waistband. Jones allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he had a gun and shot it at the victim. A 1997 conviction for felony assault made it illegal for Jones to have a gun.
Devine said in court that the events that December night were senseless, and denied Jones probation.
Boone County prosecutor Roger Johnson said the state argued for a 15-year prison sentence. Johnson said prosecutors would not have been able to disprove self-defense in the shooting, which he said Jones claimed. Johnson added that it evidence collected also pointed to a different person having shot and killed Young.
"Additionally, testing revealed that the bullet that killed the victim was not fired from the gun we allege the Defendant possessed," Johnson said. "That is, the evidence showed someone else shot, also under a claim of using force in self-defense or defense of others."
Deputies never arrested Jones or anyone else on suspicion of murder or manslaughter. The sheriff's office said at the time of his arrest that "extenuating circumstances" needed further investigation.
