Lawrence man’s attempted murder charge reduced in domestic incident as part of plea agreement

photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Shane Jamarr White in 2006.

A Lawrence man who was originally charged with attempted murder in a domestic incident was instead convicted only of two lesser crimes on Tuesday as part of a plea agreement.

The charges against Shane Jamarr White, 46, had alleged that he attempted to stab a 73-year-old man on May 31, 2022, and that a 76-year-old man tried to intervene and was injured. The 73-year-old man was not injured, police said at the time, and the 76-year-old’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening and were not thought to have been caused by the knife, as the Journal-World reported.

White was originally charged with one felony count of attempted second-degree murder, one felony count of aggravated battery and one felony count of aggravated assault. But on Tuesday, he pleaded no contest to attempted aggravated battery and aggravated assault as part of a plea agreement. The attempted murder charge was dropped, as were seven misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property for allegedly damaging the tires of multiple vehicles between February and April of 2022.

Judge Amy Hanley accepted White’s plea and scheduled him to be sentenced on Aug. 8.

White’s attorney, Dakota Loomis, said the plea agreement recommended a sentence of 51 months, or 4.25 years, in prison. The state, represented by Assistant District Attorney Adam Carey, is not asking the court to make a finding that the crime was committed using a deadly weapon; that way, White would not be required to register as a violent offender.

White has been in custody since his arrest and is being held on a $100,000 bond. Loomis said that during White’s time in custody, White had briefly been at Larned State Hospital to restore his mental competency.

White has previous convictions in Douglas County going back to 1999 for felony theft and burglary, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.