Murder Suspect Pleads Guilty Ahead of Trial

(KNSI) — A suspect accused of killing a woman in her St. Cloud apartment has pleaded guilty.

Angela Renee Jones was charged with first and second degree murder for the shooting death of Janesa Lashay Harris and was to go on trial starting Monday, June 12th.

According to the criminal complaint, 28-year-old Harris was found dead on the morning of June 2nd, 2021, in her apartment on the 1400 block of 12th Avenue North. An autopsy says she actually died on May 31st. It was roughly six months before investigators could connect the 35-year-old Jones to the case. She was already charged with aiding and abetting in a different murder that took place the day after Harris’s body was found.

Jones entered an Alford plea, which allows her to plead guilty without admitting guilt. According to court papers filed in Stearns County District Court and signed by Jones, it says:

I have reviewed the evidence that the state will offer against me if I have a trial.
I believe that there is a substantial likelihood that I will be found guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the offense to which I am pleading if the state’s evidence is presented against me at trial.
If the judge accepts my Alford guilty plea, I will be convicted of the offense to which I am pleading, and I will be considered just as guilty as I would be if I had admitted my guilt. My claim of innocence will not have any impact on the terms and conditions of my sentence, my probation (if any), or any collateral consequences stemming from my conviction, including civil commitment for treatment.

Harris’s stepmother, Breonda Alexander, tells KNSI that Harris moved to St. Cloud from Milwaukee. She says Harris was a loving, outgoing person with a very recognizable laugh. She says Harris had a good heart, which would sometimes put her in difficult positions, but she liked to help out anyway. Alexander added that even though Harris had struggles, nobody’s perfect, and Janesa did not deserve what happened to her.

Alexander says Harris should still be here and added that she loved her siblings and family “unconditionally.”

Jones is set to be sentenced on August 25th.

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