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Steven Jones, who last week pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a fatal shooting on Northern Arizona University campus, will head to jail Friday to await sentencing. 

Jones is scheduled to report to Coconino County Jail no later than 5 p.m. 

The 23-year-old former NAU student pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to manslaughter and three counts aggravated assault for a shooting on the Flagstaff campus in 2015 that left one student dead and injured three others.

NAU student Colin Brough was fatally shot after a fight started outside an off-campus apartment complex and spilled onto campus. Three other students —Nick Piring, Nick Prato and Kyle Zientek —were wounded.

Jones faced the possibility of a life sentence with no possibility of release, if found guilty. Under the plea agreement, he will be sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. He isn’t eligible for probation.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11

Jones’ attorney, Burges McCowan, said last week that the plea resolution was a tough decision for Jones but it “gives everyone closure without the heartache of another trial.”

Lou Diesel, a Flagstaff attorney who represents three of the four victims but is not part of the criminal trial, the victims are not receiving the full justice they were expecting, but they are receiving some closure after more than four years.

The Feb. 11 sentencing hearing in Coconino County Superior Court is expected to last all day. 

Diesel said the victims and their families look forward to the sentencing hearing so they can explain to the court “the devastation and catastrophic consequences caused by Mr. Jones’s unlawful and criminal conduct.”

The tragedy was the first campus shooting in NAU’s 116-year history, made national news and was the subject of a hour-long TV special.

Jones was scheduled to be retried this month after his first trial in 2017 ended in a hung jury as jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Jones was originally charged with first-degree, premeditated murder and aggravated assault. In the retrial, prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge to second-degree murder in hopes of avoiding defense appeals and further trial delays.

The first trial featured conflicting accounts of the shooting

Jones said he shot in self-defense. Prosecutors say he was the aggressor after being punched in the face during an altercation with members of the Delta Chi fraternity.

Jones and his two friends described being set upon by a mob of mostly drunken and angry fraternity members.

The fraternity members denied there was any violence on their part beyond the first sucker punch, but Jones’ friends described being taken to the ground.

Jones claimed his life was in danger and that he fired on Brough and Piring because they were about to tackle him. But prosecutors say Jones was never in danger for his life, and that he returned to the fight with premeditation — and a gun.

Though Piring and some of the other fraternity members testified that Jones and Brough were several feet apart, the autopsy report introduced as evidence in the first trial showed that Brough was within two feet or closer to the muzzle of Jones’ gun when he fired. The trajectory of the bullets indicated that Brough was leaning forward as if lunging, as some witnesses said. The prosecution suggested that perhaps Brough tripped and fell.

Both sides quibbled as to the number of people who jumped Jones after the first shooting.

Several witnesses described trying to subdue Jones and take away his gun. Jones said he was certain that if they took the gun, they would shoot him and kill him. He said he fired into the air, striking Prato and Zientek. The prosecution alleged that Jones intended to shoot them.

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Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.

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