Douglas County judge sends attempted murder case to trial after shooting testimony

Douglas County District Court moved Temujin Jernigan toward trial after hearing testimony that prosecutors say shows an attempted killing, not self-defense. Judge Nancy Parrish found enough evidence to bind Jernigan over on attempted aggravated first-degree murder after Logan Labelle described a confrontation at the Hawks Pointe apartment complex in Lawrence.

Labelle testified that he was putting his daughter in the car when Jernigan, identified as his girlfriend’s ex, pulled up and started trash talking. Labelle said Jernigan pulled out a gun, cocked it and, when Labelle asked whether he was really going to kill him in front of his daughter, Jernigan replied that he would. Labelle said the shooting did not happen in the parking lot itself, but about a minute later after he walked into his girlfriend’s apartment.

That timeline is now central to the case. Prosecutors say Jernigan acted with premeditation and intended to kill Labelle. Defense lawyers argued Jernigan believed he was defending himself from Labelle. Parrish’s ruling did not decide guilt or innocence, but it cleared the way for the prosecution to present the case to a jury.

The shooting happened Jan. 23, 2026, at Hawks Pointe, just south of West Seventh Street and Florida Street in Lawrence. Police said the suspect was taken into custody after about a four-hour search and a traffic stop near Kasold Drive and Peterson Road. The injured man, then 23, was reported in critical condition on a ventilator after being flown from LMH Health to KU hospital in Kansas City, Kansas.

A probable-cause affidavit adds another layer to what jurors could hear later. It says Jernigan and Andrea Luna had broken up in November 2025, and that Luna told police he had sent threatening text messages the day before the shooting. The affidavit also says Luna called dispatch after the shooting and said, “Someone is dying.” Police interviewed two witnesses, and the document also listed a 6-month-old baby as a witness.

The record also shows Jernigan was not new to firearm restrictions. He had entered a diversion agreement on a criminal threat charge in November 2024 and was ordered not to use or possess guns. He also had a second pending criminal threat case from March 15, 2025, along with a separate drug case unrelated to the shooting.

By late April, Jernigan was being held in the Douglas County Jail on a bond of $1 million or more while awaiting the preliminary hearing. The case now heads deeper into the Seventh Judicial District, where the fight will turn on who initiated contact, whether an imminent threat existed and whether the state can overturn the self-defense claim that has shadowed the case from the start.