Fostoria man pleads guilty in Walmart shooting incident

FREMONT — A Fostoria man recently pleaded guilty to his role in a December 2024 shooting inside a Walmart parking lot. At a court hearing on June 24, Johnathan D. Matthews, 19, pleaded guilty to one amended count of attempted complicity in the commission of an offense, a third-degree felony. Matthews pleaded guilty to the amended count in exchange for the charge being downgraded from a second-degree to a third-degree felony and one count of tampering with evidence, also a third-degree felony, to be dismissed, according to court records. Matthews is scheduled to be sentenced at 11 a.m. on Aug. 4. Background Fremont police arrested two people in connection with a report of a possible disturbance involving a firearm in the Walmart parking lot on Dec. 2, 2024. In a statement released shortly after the incident by Fremont police Chief Derek Wensinger, the incident that occurred in the business's parking lot involved six people in two separate vehicles. Matthews' co-defendant, Navarea Cooks-McKinney, 19, 1600 block Dickinson St., Fremont, was sentenced on June 2 to serve five to seven-and-a-half years in prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of felonious assault in exchange for one count of having weapons while under disability and tampering with evidence, each a third-degree felony to be dismissed. On the day of his sentencing, the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas released a statement that included additional information on what occurred. "McKinney fired a handgun at another individual during an altercation in the parking lot of the Walmart in Fremont," the release states. "The victim was not struck, but the act was found to be deliberate and posed (a) significant risk to public safety."