MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Killing 19-Year-Old at Minneapolis Park

Seneca Jones of Apple Valley was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison for the 2025 shooting death of 19-year-old Darnell Mapp at a Minneapolis park, following his August conviction after a two-week trial.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (October 6, 2026).

An Apple Valley man convicted of killing a 19-year-old at a Minneapolis park has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, bringing the trial phase of the 2025 homicide prosecution to a close.

Seneca Jones received the sentence Monday for the killing of Darnell Mapp.

Jones was convicted in August following a two-week trial. The court credited him with 320 days already served in custody.

The case arose from a July 2025 confrontation at a Minneapolis park.

Investigators said Jones and Mapp had been involved in a dispute over allegedly stolen property before the shooting.

Witnesses told police that Jones approached Mapp at the park and shot him.

The investigation subsequently led authorities from Minneapolis to Apple Valley.

When officers searched Jones' home, investigators examined his wife's cellphone and found that she had called him more than 50 times during the hour following the shooting, according to information presented in the case.

Police used Jones' cellphone information as part of the effort to locate him and arrested him shortly after the killing.

Unlike a newly filed criminal complaint, Monday's proceeding followed a completed jury trial.

Jones entered the sentencing hearing as a convicted defendant, meaning the presumption-of-innocence language required during the charging and trial stages no longer applies to the offense for which the jury found him guilty.

The 40-year sentence establishes the punishment imposed by the district court, although Minnesota sentencing calculations can involve supervised release and other statutory provisions that differ from the headline prison term. MinneapoliMedia is therefore not characterizing the sentence as requiring Jones to spend every one of those 40 years physically incarcerated without additional court documentation establishing that conclusion.

The case also closes another chapter for Mapp's family more than a year after the 19-year-old was killed.

The underlying dispute may have preceded the encounter, but the criminal case ultimately turned on the fatal decision at the park and the evidence prosecutors presented tying Jones to the shooting.

Monday's sentencing moves the case from prosecution into the corrections and potential appellate stages.

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