A Denver man plead guilty to charges of third-degree murder, robbery, person not to possess a firearm and receiving stolen property Tuesday morning in Lancaster County Court regarding the shooting of 68-year-old Steve Walker in West Earl Township in August 2020.

Stephen John Jones, 28 of West Maple Grove Road, will serve 35 to 80 years in prison as Lancaster County Judge Donald Totaro accepted the guilty plea and ordered sentence.

In the early morning of August 9, 2020, Jones forced the victim to stop his vehicle on Cats Back Road just south of Ephrata.

Jones then shot the victim through the open driver’s side window with a shotgun, which he was illegally possessing due to prior convictions in New York. The two men did not know each other.

Jones had been at the Sheetz on Route 322 prior to the shooting, where he entered the store with the firearm and asked for a gas pump to be turned on. He exited the store and put the fuel nozzle into his truck’s tank before driving off with the nozzle still in the truck and breaking the hose off the pump. He was charged with robbery for the gas; the truck had been stolen from Greencastle, Pa.

Police circulated an image of the man from the Sheetz to the media and were directed to Jones from a tip. Jones was arrested on August 9, 2020. Police found the firearm in a field near the shooting that was tracked back to Jones. The victim’s DNA was also found on the stolen truck. A witness said they heard a gunshot and saw the truck driving away from the scene.

The sentencing judge accepted the guilty plea to third-degree murder but noted that the acts deserved life in prison. The Commonwealth noted that a voluntary intoxication defense, which would reduce a first-degree sentence to a third-degree sentence, was a strong factor in entering into the plea bargain.

After being asked a second time by Judge Totaro if he had any remorse, Jones stated he was sorry and that he thinks about it every day, even though he doesn’t remember committing the act, saying, “I never wanted to do anything wrong.”

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ponessa prosecuted the case and read victim impact statements from the victim’s ex-wife and daughter at the plea and sentencing.

“Hearing how this will forever affect this family is devastating,” Ponessa said. “The hope is that the defendant will spend the majority of his life in prison.”

West Earl Township Police Detective Dawn Ray and Lancaster County Detective Brandon McAnally filed charges.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sean McBryan, semcbryan@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @SeanMcBryanLanc.