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Detroit Charles Jones,whose role in ahigh school student's 2010 slayinghelped spark thepolice raid that ended with the officer-involved shooting death of his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana Stanley-Jones, has been granted parole.

Jones wasgiven a "contingency parole" after completing required prison programs, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz said Monday. Jones does not have a release date identified, although he could be freed as early as Thursday, Gautz said.

"(Jones') parole guideline score placed him in the high probability of parole range," Gautz said in an email. "He has completed various programming and is active in vocational training. The prisoner has not incurred any serious misconducts while in prison."

The mother of Jones' victim, Lyvonne Cargill, said: "I'm stressed thinking about that man coming home." But she added: "I hope he does the right thing when he gets outand triesto help these other young Black males out here;tell them about lifeand tell them what he did."

On May 14, 2010, Jones handed a .357 magnum pistol to his friend Chauncey Owens, who gunned down Cargill's son, 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake, outside the Motor City Marketplace on Mack at St. Jean on Detroit's east side.

Owens didn't like the way the Southeastern High School teen had looked at him, according to court testimony.

Two days later, a crew from the Detroit Police Special Response Team raided Jones' house on Lillibridge Street, blocks from the store. The team, which had received intelligence that at least one rifle was in the house,wasaccompanied by a crew from the cable TV show, "First 48."

Officers deployeda "flash bang" grenadeand kicked in the front door, and raid team leader Joseph Weekley led the crewinto the house. Within seconds, Weekleyfired hisMP5 rifle, killingAiyana, who was sleeping on the living room couch with her grandmother Mertilla Jones.

Aiyanas death garnered national attention, including sharp criticism from the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Weekley, who retired from the police department in 2019,claimed Mertilla Jones grabbed his rifle, causing it to discharge. He was charged twice with involuntary manslaughter, but both cases ended in mistrials. In 2019, Jones' family agreed to an $8.5 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement against the city of Detroit in connection with the raid.

Owens was convicted of first-degree murderand sentenced to life in prison. Jones pleaded guilty tosecond-degree murder and was sentenced to40-60 years, although in 2017 the Michigan Court of Appeals granted him a new trial.

The appellatecourt ruledthe presiding judge in Jones'case hadn'tadequately answered jurors' questionsduring deliberations. Joneswas retried in 2019 for manslaughter and for being a habitual offender, and was sentenced to 10-20 years, with2,841 days credit for time served.

Cargill said because of COVID-19 restrictions, she was unable to attend Jones' parole hearings to contest his release.

"We had to do it by paperwork, and they read the letters from my side of the family (during the parole hearing)," Cargill said. "They said he'll be on parole until 2030, and he or his family can't be around my family.

"It's irking me so bad," Cargill said. "My sugar is going up from stress. It's hurting me. I forgive him, but I don't forget what he did."

Cargill said her two surviving children, a 30-year-old daughter and son, 22, took the news of Jones' pending release hard.

"It bothers them," she said. "(Jones is) the one who gave (Owens) the gun to kill their brother. If he didn't give him the gun, they feel like their brother would still be alive, and Aiyana would still be alive."

ghunter@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2134

Twitter: @GeorgeHunter_DN

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Father of Aiyana Stanley-Jones gets paroled in killing of teen - The Detroit News