Johnson County jury finds woman guilty of murder in shooting of Fairway officer
A Johnson County jury has found a Tennessee woman guilty of murder in the 2023 fatal shooting of Fairway police officer Jonah Oswald.
At the conclusion of a trial that began last week, jurors in Johnson County District Court on Thursday found Andrea Cothran, 33, guilty of first-degree felony murder, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, theft and reckless driving, according to court records. Jurors found Cothran not guilty on two theft counts and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Cothran is scheduled to be sentenced July 8.
A defense attorney for Cothran did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Oswald, a 29-year-old husband and father of two young children, was shot in August 2023 during an attempted arrest in a QuikTrip bathroom in Mission after police chased two suspected vehicle thieves. Oswald died at the hospital the next day.
Cothran and Shannon Marshall, 40, also of Tennessee, had allegedly fled from police in a Jeep that had been stolen from a Lenexa gas station. Police caught up to the pair at the QuikTrip in Mission and took Cothran into custody in a hallway. When officers entered a bathroom to arrest Marshall, Marshall allegedly shot Oswald as law enforcement tried to force open a door. Marshall was then shot by law enforcement and died at the scene.
Cothran was not accused of shooting Oswald. But under Kansas’ felony murder law, accomplices can be held culpable when someone is killed during a serious crime, even if they were not the killer.
