LOWELL — Mark Jones looked around the Shaughnessy Terrace housing project and wanted something better for his life. He thought drugs were the way to get there.
They weren’t. The 21-year-old was shot twice in the head and left to die behind a snowbank on March 18, 1994.
Many in Lowell wrote the murder off as the end of a violent criminal. It went unsolved for 12 years while a brother and sister pushed for justice, and a mother patiently waited for God’s will.
That mother, Mandy Jones, finally got what she was waiting for yesterday.
That’s when Nolyn Surprenant, 30, of Methuen, walked into the Lowell police station and turned himself in on a warrant charging accessory before the fact of murder — the murder of Mark Jones.
The warrant was obtained just hours earlier.
Tyler Jones and Meekelia Walker, Mark’s siblings, broke into tears when they got the news.
Capt. Robert DeMoura said the siblings prompted a new look at the case when they met with him a year ago.
A break in the case came several months ago when a new witness came forward, though DeMoura would not say more.
Police accuse Surprenant of knowingly driving Jones’ killer to 1910 Skyline Drive, where Jones was found dying hours after the shooting.
That killer is in police cross-hairs, though neither DeMoura nor District Attorney Martha Coakley’s office would identify him. He’s behind bars in California, awaiting trial on other charges.
“We know who the shooter is and we know what happened that night,” DeMoura said. “He’s not out on the street.”
The case against that man is active, and could be taken to a grand jury.
Mandy Jones moved here from Virginia when her boys and two girls were just kids, escaping an abusive ex-husband, Tyler Jones said.
Mark was intelligent and athletic, enjoying basketball and football. He protected his friends, and would do anything for them.
Tyler tried to keep him out of trouble. It didn’t work.
Tyler said Mark wanted something better than he had in the projects, and drugs seemed a way to get that.
“He saw drugs as fast money,” Tyler said. “It was something he could get now, and that’s where a lot of kids go wrong.”
When Mark Jones died, his sons were 4 months and 2 years old. Jones was awaiting trial for kidnapping and armed robbery.
Mandy Jones said she always had faith her son’s killers would be caught.
“I trust in God … but when God gives you something he gives it to you on his time,” she said. “I told God, ‘I just hope I live to see it one day.’ ”
Tyler Jones said he never stopped thinking about his brother. The memories were especially painful when Mandy Jones would remind him that he was the only son she had left.
Tyler Jones and Walker both said they always called police if they heard something about the case, hoping a detective would finally forget their brother’s past and simply focus on his murder.
DeMoura credited detectives Crosby Brackett and Joe Zanoli and Sgt. Joe Murray for solving the case.
Surprenant’s attorney, Thomas Butters of Boston, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Surprenant will be arraigned this morning in Lowell District Court.
Robert Mills’ e-mail address is rmills@lowellsun.com.
