Man found not guilty of fatally shooting brother on Christmas Day

An Iowa man has been found not guilty of fatally shooting his brother at a family party on the West Side on Christmas Day 2014.

Lorenzo Jones was found not guilty of murder Friday after a two-day jury trial before Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, according to Cook County court records.

The family gathered for a Christmas party at a relative’s home in the 1900 block of South Trumbull about 6 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2014, prosecutors alleged. The brothers had had an ongoing dispute about the treatment of their sick mother, who died about a month earlier.

When 52-year-old Dennis Jones and his 42-year-old brother pulled up to the party, the elder Jones was shot in the chest and leg, prosecutors said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 8:22 p.m. The younger brother was shot in the leg and was also treated at Mount Sinai.

Lorenzo Jones, of the 800 block of Benton Court in Iowa City, Iowa, was arrested in Iowa and charged in January 2015 with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery for the discharge of a firearm, authorities said.

He was released immediately from the Cook County Jail, where he had been held since his arrest without bond, according to the sheriff’s office.