Two arrested in shooting of Morgantown man

By Andy Bell-Baltaci | Daily Journal

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MORGANTOWN — A man and a woman were arrested Monday after a person was shot Sunday evening in the 6700 block of South 800 West, Morgantown.

At around 8:55 p.m. Sunday, the Johnson County Communications Center received a call that a person, later identified as Jerry Jones, 38, of Morgantown, had been shot.

Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived and located Jones, but found that the gunman had fled the scene. Deputies questioned witnesses and launched an investigation was led them to different locations around central Indiana, said Sheriff Duane Burgess.

Jones received medical care from Trafalgar firefighters and Morgantown Emergency Services and was transported to IU Methodist Hospital, where he remains in critical condition, investigators said.

Deputies first located Miranda D. Lawson, 19, of Morgantown, in a residence on Mahalasville Road in Morgan County. She was initially booked into jail just before 4 a.m. Monday on a charge of attempted murder but that charge was downgraded as new information was uncovered in the investigation, Burgess said. She will be charged with false informing, for allegedly providing police with incorrect information, he said.

Later Monday morning, deputies located Nicolas R. Saunders, 19, formerly of Morgantown, at his current home in Elizabethtown and served a warrant at the residence. He is initially charged with aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony, in Johnson County, but that charge could be upgraded as the investigation continues, Burgess said.

Because of Saunders’s actions when police were attempting to apprehend him, additional charges will likely be filed in Jennings County for resisting law enforcement and criminal mischief to a sheriff’s office vehicle, the release says. The criminal mischief charge stems from Saunders breaking the window of a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office vehicle, Burgess said.

The sheriff’s office is refraining from releasing booking photos initially because Jones is not in a position to confirm the identity of the gunman in his current condition, Burgess said.

The sheriff’s office was assisted by Morgantown and Trafalgar police, as well as the Morgan and Jennings County sheriff’s offices and the Johnson County SWAT Team.