Charge: Man fatally shot woman in Mpls. strip mall parking lot after friend told him to do it

A 31-year-old man has been charged with making good on a demand and fatally shooting a woman in the chest in a parking lot outside a north Minneapolis strip mall in the middle of the afternoon.

Nicholas A. Jefferson of Minneapolis was charged Friday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the May 12 killing of 26-year-old Iesha L. Wiley, also of Minneapolis. Jefferson remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of a Tuesday court appearance.

Based on witness accounts, prosecutors allege that:

Wiley's boyfriend, who is not Jefferson, followed her into a business and argued with her as she held a baby. The boyfriend ordered her to put down the infant, but she refused, "fearing she would be assaulted," the complaint read.

He then punched her in the face and stole her cellphone. Wiley put down the baby, followed her boyfriend into the parking lot near West Broadway and Lyndale Avenue N. and pepper sprayed him.

Wiley and her boyfriend continued to feud, and she demanded her cellphone back. He warned her that he would shoot her.

One witness heard the boyfriend order someone in a car stopped nearby to shoot Wiley, and gunfire came from the open passenger-side window. Wiley was later pronounced dead.

While surveillance video corroborated witness accounts, Jefferson told investigators he was at the scene but said someone else in the vehicle shot Wiley. No one else has been charged in the death.