Just two days after the first anniversary of the shooting, an Owen County woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the shooting death of her mother and the injury of her father.
Sue Ellen Johns Wagers was sentenced Aug. 22 after she pleaded guilty four days earlier to manslaughter and assault in connection with the death of her mother.
Wagers was charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault in connection with the Aug. 20, 2005, death of her mother, Nancy Johns, 39, and injury to her father, Virgil Johns, 40.
She received a 10-year sentence on each charge, but Circuit Judge Stephen Bates ordered that she serve them concurrently.
Reports at the time of the incident stated that Wagers and her husband, Timothy, had been in an argument with Wagers’ parents when she shot them. The couple then got into their car and fled the scene. They were caught when they crashed the car into a tree. Timothy Wagers was seriously injured in the accident but he was not charged.
The family had been having trouble for some time according to an interview with Owen County Sheriff Zemer Hammond at the time of the incident. He said that prior to the incident, he’d been working with the family.
The night of the incident, Wagers and her husband went to her parents’ house.
The first sign of trouble came at 9:51 p.m. when a 911 call indicated there had been a shooting at 1305 Hide-A-Way Hills. Three minutes later, a second call came in advising there was a single-vehicle accident near the location of the shooting.
Emergency personnel at the two scenes determined that the individuals involved in the accident were the suspects connected with the shootings.
Nancy Johns was transported to New Horizons Medical Center where she died. Virgil Johnson was transported to the University of Kentucky Medical Center by LifeNet for the gunshot wound he sustained. He was released from the University of Kentucky Medical Center the next day.
Timothy Wagers was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center with serious injuries he received in the accident.
Sue Ellen Wagers was taken to New Horizons Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.

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