A stayed jail term and community service is the sentence for a St. Paul woman who left an unlocked handgun in a drawer, allowing her 7-year-old nephew to take it to school, where another student fired the weapon.
Breanna J. Jones, 35, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty Thursday in Ramsey County District Court to negligent storage of a firearm, a gross misdemeanor.
Jones was immediately sentenced to a 180-day stayed jail term, two years' probation and 40 hours of community service. Conditions of her probation include taking a firearms safety class.
No one was hurt in the Nov. 17 incident at Crossroads Elementary, 543 Front Av., but the bullet almost struck a student and then skipped across the floor toward the teacher's desk.
Jones' nephew found the .38-caliber revolver in a clear plastic bedside drawer and took it to school, where it was fired in a classroom full of students.
A teacher heard the gun go off and saw it on the floor under a table where students were sitting. Police responded and interviewed the students who were at the table. One student reported seeing a boy play with the gun and then slide it under the table to a second boy. The second boy, an 8-year-old, spun the revolver's cylinder and pulled the trigger, causing it to fire.
The nephew, a first-grader, told police the gun belonged to his uncle and that he got it out of a bedroom drawer. He also told police he gave the gun to the first boy while on the school bus.
