AURORA | A 25-year-old man who pleaded guilty to killing a 2-year-old girl who was in his care in Aurora has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Hasan Jones was sentenced Thursday after previously pleading guilty to child abuse resulting in death. Police were called to an apartment Aug. 18, 2014, and found the girl, Ny’ari Hines, unresponsive.
Jones, 25, was initially charged with child abuse resulting in death stemming from the August 2014 slaying of Ny’Ari Hines. But late last year, just before he was set for arraignment on that charge, prosecutors opted to file a more serious charge of first-degree murder against Jones.
Police said Jones was caring for the girl when she stopped breathing. Doctors later said there were signs that she had been abused.
Aurora police say the girl had blunt-force injuries to her stomach that caused her bowels to bleed.
Jones made headlines when he was shot and paralyzed earlier in 2014 by anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts, who was acquitted of attempted murder in the case last year.
According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records, Jones, who goes by the nicknames “Munch” and “Lil Mafia,” has been arrested several times in Denver and Aurora in recent years.
He was arrested in Denver in October 2010 and charged with drug distribution, assault and child abuse, and in August 2014 he was arrested and charged with attempted murder for shooting at a man in May of that year. A jury later acquitted him of attempted murder and other charges stemming from that case.
In 2013, Jones was paralyzed when he was shot multiple times by anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood. Roberts said he was acting in self-defense.
He has been held in the Arapahoe County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond since his 2014 arrest, according to jail records.