Michael Anthony Jones [Mugshot from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Booking Logs]
Authorities revealed that a Fort Bragg man suspected of shooting his 62-year-old neighbor back in January successfully eluded law enforcement on two separate occasions by escaping on foot before being successfully taken into custody on April 9, 2024.
33-year-old Michael Anthony Jones now sits in the Mendocino County Jail facing a slew of felony charges including attempted murder.
Back in January, deputies got word of a shooting on the night of the 13th on the 31000 block of Highway 20 east of Fort Bragg. Responding deputies ascertained Jones and his 62-year-old neighbor identified in court records as William Eric Evans were in a dispute over stolen property which resulted in Jones pulling a pistol, pointing it at Evans, and firing a single shot. Jones missed and fled the area in a vehicle. Despite attempts by deputies to locate him that evening, he was nowhere to be found.
The next morning around 7:25 a.m., deputies were deployed to the 29000 block of Highway 20 after reports of a shooting emerged where they located Evans who had been shot in the leg allegedly by Jones. Deputies were told he fired the gun and fled into the wooded area south of the property. Evans was transported to an area hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries.”
The authorities obtained a search warrant and the Mendo-Lake County Regional SWAT team converged on the location. Despite gathering evidence from the scene, Jones was nowhere to be found.
The search extended to a residence on Fort Bragg’s Turner Road where Jones was known to frequent to no avail.
At that point, the immediate search for Jones ended and the shelter-in-place was lifted. It was evident Jones had slipped away (a skill Jones would prove adept at)
On February 22, 2024, just three miles from the location of the attempted murder of Evans, Jones was allegedly seen driving a vehicle in the 29000 block of Highway 20 near Fort Bragg.
When Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office deputies attempted to contact Jones, he took off on foot into the nearby woods and eluded capture.
Deputies searched the vehicle he had been driving and reportedly located “a loaded sawed-off shotgun”. Deputies took a report for charges including a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a short-barrelled shotgun, and resisting arrest. These charges were forwarded to the Mendocino County’s District Attorney for prosecution.
Just last week, on April 3, 2024, deputies encountered a truck associated with Jones on the 800 block of Coast Street in Willits. The driver, 38-year-old Fort Bragg woman Rachel Hunt, allegedly drove the truck to an area “where [Jones] could make an easier escape on foot to elude capture.” Deputies gave chase “but were unable to arrest him.”
Hunt was arrested that evening, for a felony warrant and aiding a wanted person, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was booked into the Mendocino County jail with her bail set at $30,000.
On the afternoon of April 9, 2024. the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office learned Jones was shacked up in a home on the 2200 block of Willits’s Eastside Road.
With a warrant in hand, MCSO joined forces with the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force and other local agencies to descend on the location.
K9 Deputy “Jet”, the officer that finally allowed authorities to bring Jones into custody [Picture from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page]
As the outfit approached the residence, Jones once again beat feet and fled. This time the aptly named K9 deputy “Jet” pursued and proved Jones’s undoing. Shortly after the dog was deployed, Jones knew the jig was up and surrendered. Officers took him into custody and found him to be in possession of suspected methamphetamine.
After successfully eluding Johnny Law on three occasions since the alleged shooting of his neighbor, Jones was transported to the Mendocino County Jail, booked for possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest.
At 24 years old, Jones was one of a three-man burglary crew in Modesto, California. As per a press release from the Stanislaus District Attorney’s Office, around 2:00 a.m. on August 23, 2013, the trio targeted a home attempting to pry a side entry door open with a screwdriver. They were interrupted by a concerned neighbor which resulted in Jones pulling a .22 caliber revolver on the bystander.
Keeping with his habits, Jones and the two other accomplices fled the scene. Modesto Police located him a short time later.
A jury found him guilty in January 2015 sentencing him to 15 years and four months in state prison but it is clear he was released for reasons unknown.
The criminal complaint filed by the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office indicates Jones was also convicted of robbery in May 2010 but we were unable to verify the circumstances around that crime.
The criminal complaint indicates the first count he faces is felony assault with a deadly weapon.
Count two of his criminal complaint is a felony charge of criminal threat, a law that “prohibits threatening to harm or kill someone when the threat puts the victim in reasonably sustained fear for their safety or that of their loved ones”. There is a special allegation associated with that for his use of a firearm in the commission of the criminal threat.
The third count Jones stands accused of is felony attempted murder claiming Jones acted with “malice aforethought, did willfully and unlawfully attempt to murder a human being”. Associated with this charge is a special allegation because he allegedly used a firearm to commit the crime.
Count four is felony assault with a firearm with another special allegation attached because the commission of the crime with a firearm designates the act as a “serious felony”
Jones also faces two “strike allegations”, both for the two previous robberies on his record committed in Stanislaus County. Strike allegations are a result of California’s three strikes law that requires a defendant who commits a felony with two or more strikes on his record to spend at least 25 years to life in state prison.
Jones’s arraignment is today at the Mendocino County Superior Court in front of Judge Keith Faulder at 8:30 a.m.
It must be stated that the charges Jones faces have not been proven in a court of law. Following the legal principle of the presumption of innocence, he should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Previous Coverage
Reason he was released so soon is most likely that unless a home is occupied by a resident at the time of the crime, someone convicted of residential burglary is entitled to a 50% reduction of his sentence for good behavior; otherwise that good time is limited to 15%.