Fourteen years later, an arrest in Lowell murder case

By Globe Staff

Fourteen years after a 21-year-old man was shot dead in Lowell, police have arrested the alleged killer in California, prosecutors said today.

Thirty-five-year-old Shawn Lessieur of Lowell was arrested in Alameda, Calif. on a warrant for murder. He is accused of firing the shots that killed 21-year-old Mark Jones of Lowell on March 18, 1994.

"This office does not and will not forget the victims of unsolved homicides," Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement.

A second man, Nolyn Surprenant, 30, of Methuen is being held without bail pending his trial on murder charges in the case. Police allege that he participated in the murder by driving Lessieur to and from the slaying with the knowledge that Lessieur planned to kill Jones.

Authorities were unable to make an arrest after several months of investigation into the 1994 slaying. But in May 2006, they arrested Surprenant.

Lowell and State Police continued to investigate, obtaining an arrest warrant earlier this month for Lessieur. He was arrested Friday.

• Comment
• Permalink
• Email