Columbia man arrested after high-speed chase previously served prison time for manslaughter

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) 

A Columbia man allegedly involved in a Boone County shooting was arrested Wednesday evening following a high-speed chase. 

Javion Lawhorn, 35, was charged on Thursday with aggravated fleeing. He is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond. A court date has not been set.

According to court documents, Lawhorn was pulled over by police in a McDonald's parking lot after failing to stop at a red light while turning onto Clark Lane. While the officer was walking toward Lawhorn, he allegedly put his car into drive and peeled out, initiating a high-speed chase. The chase lasted several miles with officers alleging that he was driving 137 miles per hour before Boone County deputies spiked Lawhorn’s car, which caused him to crash into a tree. 

Lawhorn then got out of his car and began to run away from deputies before being caught in the woods, according to the probable cause statement. 

Shaunda Hamilton was sitting in her car Thursday afternoon when her phone began ringing. The person on the other end wanted to know if Hamilton had heard that Lawhorn had been arrested. 

"[I was] just very emotional when I heard the news," Hamilton told ABC 17 News.

Lawhorn served roughly three years in prison for his involvement in a shooting that killed Hamilton’s 18-year-old daughter Nadria Wright and injured Sam Baldwin IV in September 2019. Lawhron was seen driving a white Mercedes the night of the shooting, the same type of car he was driving Wednesday night. 

He was sentenced to seven years in prison after entering an Alford plea to second-degree assault and first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but admits that the state has evidence for a conviction. Because of this, Hamilton believes she was robbed of justice. 

“I'll never get to have that trial, that we should have had,” Hamilton said. “This time last year, I received a call from MOVANS, and it did let me know that he was actually moved to the Moberly Correctional Center. So, that was a really depressing holiday for me. Every year is depressing, but it was just a reminder that he was close to coming home and he was able to have family that was near him, that was able to travel to see him for the holidays. I didn't have that. So this year, honestly, a year later,  around the same time to hear that he's picked up, I do feel a little bit of relief. 

Lawhorn spent just three years behind bars after getting released on parole, but according to Hamilton, he could have been released even sooner. After being sentenced in 2021, Hamilton learned that Lawhorn was up for parole just two years later. She said her family attended the parole hearing.

“...We did not want him to be able to be released. They couldn't extend it no longer than an additional year. That was up in May and so that was all that we could get,” Hamilton said. “Nadria’s five-year death anniversary was in September, and he was out before the five years was even up. He spent approximately two-and-a-half years in a correctional facility.” 

But Hamilton says after attending every one of Lawhorn’s court hearings after her daughter’s death, she knew that he was going to get picked up for something again. 

“I was surprised it happened this quickly. I was not surprised that it happened,” Hamilton said. “There was no empathy, there was no remorse. There was nothing.”

Some of Hamilton’s frustration stems from the way former Boone County Prosecutor Morley Swingle handled the case. Hamilton did not feel represented by Swingle and says that the family was blindsided by the Alford agreement.

“We had great communication with Morley Swingle.  I don't know at what point,  him and Stephen [Wyse] decided to make a deal at 11:00 at night,” Hamilton said.  “They came to court,  they talk this through.  There was no  Judge Crane. He approved this  Alford plea.  I'm not sure why.  And so was that day is a really hard day because me getting emotional, this is what I say the victims are treated like they are the ones who have committed a crime, I was escorted out of the courtroom for becoming emotional by three marshals.” 

ABC 17 News reached out to Swingle. In 2022, the Missouri Supreme Court suspended Swingle’s law license for three years. The Court found that Swingle violated several of the Rules of Professional Conduct – which included admitting to inappropriate relationships he had with a suspect in a murder case. 

Following her daughter’s death, Hamilton started Boone County Community Against Violence. The organization helps families who have gone through trauma and losses similar to hers.

In her effort to reduce gun violence in Columbia, she says one of the biggest roadblocks is people not sharing information with law enforcement. 

“I work with people who never, ever,  ever had that opportunity to ever have anyone picked up. We have people that walk around here in Colombia and have information on things that they're not telling,” Hamilton said. “This [Lawhorn’s arrest] is not a retrial for Nadria, but it is an opportunity for me, hopefully, if the courts can figure this out, to be able to feel some type of justice that he's off the street.”