Prosecutors sought 180 months after Raymond Jones was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder in Desirae Argueta-Joj’s death.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A 66-year-old Minneapolis man was sentenced to 128 months in prison for fatally shooting Desirae Argueta-Joj during a dispute over $30, ending the trial-court phase of a case in which prosecutors had sought both a more serious murder conviction and a longer prison term.

Raymond Jones received the sentence Sept. 11 after waiving a jury trial and asking a judge to decide the case. The judge found him guilty of second-degree unintentional murder but not guilty of second-degree intentional murder, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors then asked for 180 months, which the office described as the top of the presumptive sentencing range. The court imposed 128 months, or 10 years and eight months, which prosecutors said was the bottom of that range. The split outcome left Jones convicted of murder while rejecting the state’s claim that he intentionally killed Argueta-Joj.

The distinction mattered because Minnesota law treats intentional and unintentional second-degree murder as separate forms of the offense. Intentional second-degree murder applies when a person causes a death with intent to kill, but without premeditation. Unintentional second-degree murder covers certain deaths caused without intent to kill while the defendant is committing or attempting another felony. Both offenses can carry a statutory maximum of 40 years, but sentencing guidelines normally produce a much narrower presumptive range based on the conviction and other factors. In Jones’ case, prosecutors said the applicable range ran from 128 to 180 months.

The killing happened Nov. 5, 2025, inside Jones’ apartment in the 2600 block of West Broadway Avenue. Police responding to the apartment found Argueta-Joj on the floor between furniture with a folding pocketknife in her hand, according to accounts citing court records. She had been shot in the chest and died at the scene. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office later said the evidence showed the fatal shot passed through her heart and was fired at contact range. Argueta-Joj was 42, based on the birth and death dates published by her funeral home.

Jones was the person who called 911. According to court documents described by local and national news organizations, he initially told authorities that Argueta-Joj had a gun and that it discharged during a struggle. Investigators later determined the handgun belonged to Jones. FOX 9 reported that Jones acknowledged owning the .45-caliber weapon for about 15 years and admitted pulling the trigger, while maintaining that the shot was fired during a physical confrontation. Officers who examined him after the shooting reported no visible injuries, marks or scratches, a detail prosecutors used in challenging his account of a violent struggle.

Jones told investigators that he had met Argueta-Joj earlier that day and intended to pay her $30 for sex. He said they went to his apartment and that the encounter did not proceed as expected. When she prepared to leave, Jones said he realized the cash was missing and stopped her from going. His account was that Argueta-Joj then produced a knife and that the confrontation escalated. In one statement reported from the court record, investigators asked why he did not simply allow her to leave. Jones answered that it was because she had his $30.

That sequence became central to the prosecution’s theory. Prosecutors rejected the suggestion that the shooting was an accident and argued that the physical evidence showed Jones fired at extremely close range. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said after sentencing that the state believed the evidence supported intentional second-degree murder. She also criticized the sentence, saying the facts of the case and the way responsibility had been discussed in court minimized Jones’ culpability. The judge’s verdict, however, established a different legal conclusion: Jones was criminally responsible for Argueta-Joj’s death, but the state had not proved the intentional-murder count to the standard required for conviction.

The case therefore moved into sentencing with a narrower question than the one prosecutors had presented at trial. The court was no longer deciding whether Jones committed intentional murder; the acquittal on that count had resolved that issue in his favor. Instead, the sentencing dispute focused on where the punishment should fall within the range for the offense of conviction. The county attorney’s office urged 180 months, the highest presumptive term it said was available without a departure. The judge chose 128 months. Prosecutors publicly emphasized the gap of 52 months, or four years and four months, between what they requested and what the court ordered.

Moriarty’s statement after the hearing focused both on the sentence and on how the case had been framed. “My thoughts are with Ms. Argueta-Joj’s loved ones. She should still be alive,” she said. Moriarty said Jones had not taken responsibility for his actions and argued that a dispute involving $30 did not reduce his responsibility for firing the shot. Her office’s public statement used unusually direct language in disagreeing with the outcome, saying prosecutors believed the verdict, sentence and allocation of blame in court understated Jones’ culpability. The statement did not change the judgment; it recorded the elected prosecutor’s disagreement with it.

Other parts of the record present a more complicated picture of Jones’ conduct after the shooting. Reporting based on court documents said he cooperated with police at the scene and appeared remorseful, and that he continued to show remorse during the court proceedings. Those observations do not resolve the legal dispute over intent, nor do they erase the prosecution’s position that he failed to accept full responsibility. They do show why the case cannot be reduced to a single statement from either side. The court had to weigh the evidence presented during a bench trial, while the public sentencing statement reflected the prosecution’s view that the outcome was too lenient.

Argueta-Joj’s obituary provides one of the few public records centered on her life rather than the circumstances of her death. The funeral home listed her full name as Desirae Brown Argueta-Joj, said she was born in Chicago on Jan. 30, 1983, and identified her parents as Lisa L. Brown and Juan Ocampo. It also said she was the mother of nine children. Those details stand apart from the court record, which largely describes the final hours of her life through statements, physical evidence and competing interpretations of the shooting.

The age reported for Argueta-Joj has varied in news coverage. Some stories described her as 43, while the funeral-home record lists a birth date of Jan. 30, 1983, and a death date of Nov. 5, 2025. Those dates make her 42 at the time of her death. The difference does not affect the criminal judgment, but it illustrates why the public record must be checked across sources even when reports agree on the core facts. The prosecutor’s office, local reporting and the obituary all identify the same victim and the same date of death.

Jones’ sentence followed a bench trial rather than a jury verdict, another point misstated in some national summaries of the case. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office specifically said Jones waived a jury and chose to have the judge decide his fate. That same judge acquitted him of intentional second-degree murder, convicted him of unintentional second-degree murder and later imposed the 128-month sentence. As of the latest publicly reviewed material, the sentencing order is the controlling result of the case; no later court ruling changing the conviction or sentence was identified.

Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.