WINFIELD – Shots fired in the Winfield Walmart parking lot – on Black Friday last November – have resulted in an attempted first-degree murder charge against a 39-year-old man.
Jason Andrew Taylor was taken into custody in Sedgwick County in late December and then transferred to the Cowley County Jail in Winfield. He has bond set at $500,000 and remained in custody Tuesday.
Taylor has been formally charged in Cowley County Dist. Court with the attempted murder count, three counts of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle. All are felonies.
A preliminary hearing for Taylor was held Tuesday in district court in Winfield. He was bound over for trial on all counts and was then arraigned. Taylor entered a plea of not guilty and will proceed toward trial.
His next appearance is a pretrial conference set for April. Taylor is represented by Ottawa attorney Forrest Lowry. Continue story below ad.
No injuries were immediately reported Nov. 29 when shots were fired around 3 p.m. in the parking lot at 2202 Pike Rd.
Initial reports indicated two vehicles were involved and that shots were fired in at least one direction. Winfield Police reviewed video and followed leads to develop a suspect. All parties left the day of the shooting and police initially worked on third-party information.
Cowley County attorney Larry Schwartz said the investigation and subsequent filing of charges began to move more quickly. The preliminary hearing Tuesday happened before all police work in the matter had concluded.
“We had enough for him to be bound over for trial,” he said.
Schwartz said his office pursued an attempted first-degree charge because it will be the state’s assertion that shots were fired with an intent to injure and kill.
