MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Hennepin County Attorney's Office is speaking out against the sentencing decision for a man who was found guilty of fatally shooting a sex worker.
Man sentenced to 10 years, 8 months for fatally shooting sex worker
Initial encounter:
Police say they responded to an apartment in the 2600 block of West Broadway Avenue on Nov. 5, 2025. They then found a woman, later identified only as Desirae Argueta-Joj, 42, lying on the ground between a table and a couch. She was later pronounced dead after sustaining a fatal gunshot wound to the chest and abdomen.
The criminal complaint states a folding pocketknife was found in the woman's right hand with the tip pointed up, and two other knives were found on a chair nearby, according to police. Officers also recovered a black sock with the muzzle of a silver handgun sticking out of it from inside the apartment.
Jones told police he had met the woman earlier that day near East Franklin Avenue and 10th or 11th Avenue South. He said he did not know her name but picked her up because she "seemed like good people" and didn't appear to be under the influence of drugs. Jones admitted he had picked up prostitutes in that area before and said he brought the woman back to his apartment, where he offered her marijuana. He said the two had arranged an exchange of sex for money.
Jones told police the encounter ended when he said it "wasn't working" and the woman began putting her jacket on to leave. He said he noticed his $30 was missing from the table and saw her placing the cash inside the pages of a book. He told her, "That ain't going on," according to police.
Jones said he then blocked her from leaving the apartment because, "She had my 30 dollars."
Confrontation:
Charges state that Jones told police that when he stepped in front of the woman to stop her from leaving, she pulled out a knife. He said he then grabbed two of his own knives to confront her. At one point, Jones said he had "three knives" and could have attacked her, but instead described being held at bay. He said she was standing between him and his phone, which he claimed prevented him from calling for help.
Jones said he eventually dropped the knives he was holding and tried to lunge at the woman. He described a physical struggle that ended up on the ground, saying, "In some kind of way, she done got the gun." He told police the gun went off during the struggle and that the woman was not moving afterward. He said he then set the gun on the table, took his $30 back from the woman and called 911, according to police.
Jones initially told police he did not know where the gun came from during the struggle, saying he normally kept it in the oven and did not take it out when the woman pulled the knife. He suggested she must have found it on her own. However, Jones later admitted the gun was his .45 caliber handgun, which he said he had owned for 15 years, and that he pulled the trigger — though he maintained it happened during a physical struggle, according to police.
Officers noted that Jones had no visible injuries, marks or scratches on his body after the encounter.
Sentencing:
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office said its prosecutors argued for a 180-month sentence, the highest presumptive sentence, but the judge handed down a sentence of 128 months, which prosecutors pointed out is the lowest presumptive sentence.
Hennepin County Attorney speaks out against sentence
What they're saying:
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty firmly spoke out against the judge's decision in the following statement:
"My thoughts are with Ms. Argueta-Joj’s loved ones. She should still be alive. Mr. Jones is a 66-year-old man who does not take responsibility for his actions. Because of a dispute over $30, he fired his gun at contact range into Ms. Argueta-Joj’s heart. He should have been convicted of second-degree intentional murder. The facts of this case make the verdict, the sentence, and the ways in which blame was apportioned to the victim in court minimize Mr. Jones’ culpability for his actions."
The Source: This story uses information from court documents and a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.