A Hennepin County jury has convicted Seneca Lee Jones of second-degree murder in the July 2025 shooting death of a man at Mississippi Regional Park in Minneapolis, but acquitted him of first-degree premeditated murder, court records show.
Jurors found Jones, who was 27 at the time of the shooting, guilty of second-degree intentional murder and of possessing a firearm while barred from having one. They found him not guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. The verdicts were filed Sept. 3, after a trial that began with jury selection Aug. 10.
Jones is scheduled to be sentenced Monday, Oct. 5, before Hennepin County District Judge Marta M. Chou. Prosecutors filed notice in December 2025 that they intend to seek an aggravated sentence. Second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, according to the charges.
The first-degree murder count was added by a grand jury indictment returned July 23, less than three weeks before jury selection began. Jones was first charged in July 2025 with second-degree murder and the gun-possession count.
According to the criminal complaint, Minneapolis police were sent to the park at about 3:10 a.m. on July 20, 2025, on a report of a shooting. Officers found a large group of people yelling and running, and a man sitting on the ground with his back against a parked car while bystanders tended to him. He had been shot several times and died at the scene despite life-saving efforts.
Several people told police they saw the shooting. A woman said she arrived at the park for an afterparty with the victim and others and saw Jones, whom she knew well, already there. She told police the victim and Jones were feuding over stolen property, and that as she and the victim walked over to another car, Jones walked toward the victim and shot him multiple times. The victim was not facing Jones when he was shot, she told police, according to the complaint.
Another witness told police Jones “just walked up and started shooting” and that the victim “didn’t have a chance to do anything,” the complaint says. Two other witnesses, including a person sitting in the driver’s seat of the car the victim had walked up to, also said they saw Jones walk up and shoot him.
Investigators used phone location data to place a number registered to Jones at the park at the time of the shooting, and leaving shortly afterward, according to the complaint. Officers searching his home found two handguns, ammunition and magazines, the complaint says.
The complaint says Jones has prior felony convictions that bar him from having a gun, including first-degree burglary and two earlier convictions for illegal gun possession.
When the case was filed in July 2025, prosecutors asked the court to seal it, saying public disclosure could allow Jones to flee and that law enforcement was aware of ongoing threats and intimidation of witnesses, according to court filings. A warrant for his arrest was served in November 2025.
