photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Nov. 25, 2025.

A Lawrence man charged with shooting two individuals last week is asking for a court order that would allow him to see his infant daughter, who is reportedly dying.

Jaystyn James Curtiss, who turns 20 on Thursday, appeared in Douglas County District Court via video from the jail Wednesday with his attorney, Michael Clarke, who told Senior Judge Nancy Parrish that he would be requesting a transport order so that Curtiss could be taken to a Kansas City-area hospital where his 6-week-old daughter is in the neonatal intensive care unit. It was not disclosed in court why the child is in the hospital, other than that her condition is terminal. Clarke said he would request the transport order so that Curtiss could visit the baby “before she passes.”

Curtiss is currently in jail on a bond of $200,000 after he was arrested May 15 and charged with two counts of aggravated battery in the shootings of Daja Lana Buchanan and Michael D. Phillips III. The two were wounded around 9:30 p.m. May 14 near the intersection of 16th Street and Haskell Avenue. Police said at the time that they were taken to a trauma center and were expected to fully recover.

Curtiss was arrested following a broad search involving drones, police dogs and multiple law enforcement agencies. Prior to the current charges, he had multiple run-ins with the law going back at least six years, including juvenile charges of criminal threat, battery on a law enforcement officer, theft and other offenses.

Clarke had not filed the transport request at the time of Wednesday’s hearing but said he intended to. Judge Parrish set a bond modification hearing for May 28, though she distinguished a true bond modification from a transport order, during which — if granted — Curtiss, accompanied by deputies, would remain in custody.