SEATTLE (AP) - A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting another man to death in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
The Seattle Times reports Kenneth Bernard Jones Jr. was sentenced Friday in the death of 22-year-old Melvin “TayTay” Dees.
Jones shot Dees on Sept. 24, 2014 near Second Avenue Extension South and Yesler Way.
Jones was arrested six days later in Federal Way and was charged with first-degree murder with a firearm.
He pleaded guilty to murder Sept. 20, days before he was to stand trial. According to the defense’s trial brief, Jones - who suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome - came to Seattle from Texas to reconnect with his father and father’s family.
The brief says he apparently shot Dees at the behest of a family member, though Jones later refused to implicate his relative.
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