Moorhead man pleads guilty to gun charge after boy’s death

A Moorhead man pleaded guilty Thursday to a gun charge after a boy was shot and killed with that gun earlier this year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 34-year-old Phillip Neal Jones, Jr., pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm.

On March 2, Jones had a Walther .40 caliber pistol in his home. While he was away, a visiting child found the loaded gun under a snack box in the kitchen and the gun went off, hitting and killing a second child.

Jones has multiple prior felony convictions in Hennepin and Anoka counties that prevent him from having a gun or ammunition, prosecutors said.