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NAU shooter who killed a fellow student and injured three others in 2015 leaves prison

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A Glendale man convicted in a 2015 shooting that killed a fellow Northern Arizona University student and seriously injured three others has been released from prison, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry.

Inmate records show Steven Jones was released on parole on Monday after serving a six-year prison sentence in February 2020. He was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of 20-year-old Colin Brough on October 9, 2015.

The judge's sentence, handed down when Jones was 23, included five years in prison for three counts of aggravated assault, to be served concurrently with the manslaughter sentence. He faced a maximum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to all four counts the previous month.

Jones' agreement came after a mistrial in May 2017 in which he was charged with first-degree murder and the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

Before his release, Jones had to serve at least 85% of his sentence, which included 212 days in prison.

Brough and three students were shot in a scuffle that began in an apartment complex and spread to campus. Jones and his two friends said they were attacked by a mostly drunk and angry fraternity. The fraternity members denied any violence after an initial sneaky blow.

Jones argued in court that his life was in danger and that he shot Brough and Nick Piring when they attempted to attack him. The prosecution portrayed the defendant as having returned to the fight with a weapon and acting intentionally.

An autopsy report used as evidence in the first trial shows that Brough was 2 feet or closer to the muzzle of Jones' gun when it was fired. The trajectory of the bullets indicated that Brough was leaning forward as if he was making a lunge, according to the report, which confirmed witnesses' accounts.

Several witnesses said they tried to overpower Jones and take the gun from him.

He replied that they would kill him if they took his gun away. The bullets that struck two other surviving victims, Nick Prato and Kyle Zientek, were actually fired into the air, Jones said.

Brough's mother, Claudia Brough, told the court she had suffered two nervous breakdowns, suffered depression and attempted suicide. Zientek lost a kidney, suffered a ruptured lung and a severely damaged liver after being shot in the back. Proto was shot through the neck and his family said he suffered stabbing pains, headaches and numbness.

A pretrial report from the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department said Jones had “behaved impeccably” while out of custody and on electronic monitoring.

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