Murder charge: Minneapolis woman told police her boyfriend shot himself in head

A 37-year-old woman was charged Tuesday with fatally shooting her boyfriend in her home and then trying to convince police that he killed himself.

Vivian J. Jones, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the killing in the 4000 block of N. Humboldt Avenue.

Jones, who has a felony conviction on her record for a shooting in 2006, remains jailed ahead of a court appearance Wednesday.

Authorities have yet to identify the victim other than to say he was 41 years old.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police arrived about 7:50 p.m. on what they were told was a case of suicide. Officers located the man in a bedroom with a gunshot wound behind his right ear. He was pronounced dead moments later.

Jones told police she was mad at her boyfriend for crashing her vehicle that day and then locked him out of the house.

She said he forced his way in, held the gun to his head and said he was "tired" and had "nothing left" just before shooting himself.

Staff with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office arrived and saw that the man also had been shot in the back of his upper thigh.

A neighbor reported hearing a gunshot and then the man yelling, "V! V!" The neighbor saw the man limping toward Jones' home.

A police investigator confronted Jones with the fact that the man was shot in the leg as well as the head. She said she didn't know how he suffered the leg wound.

Once informed she was being jailed on suspicion of murder, Jones said, "I did shoot him in the leg, I'm sorry for lying," the complaint read.

She then said the man shot himself in the head while she was "trying to take [the gun] back from him."

Jones' criminal history includes a conviction in 2006 in Hennepin County for first-degree assault in connection with her shooting a female twice. Jones served five years in prison for that crime.

Jones said that victim was "dealing with the same dude as me," so "I seen her and I shot her," according to Tuesday's criminal complaint.