UPDATE: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect and incomplete information. We apologize for the errors.
Police have arrested the suspect in a June 24 murder on Ward Street in Whiteville.
Kenneth Bernard Wooten, 24, was arrested July 3 for first degree murder and a probation violation, according to warrants and jail records. He is being held under no bond. His most recent address was listed as 56 New Hope Road, but Wooten also had an address in Chadbourn and another near Whiteville.
Wooten is alleged to have shot and killed Michael Jason Scott, 54, on Ward Street near MLK in Whiteville. Scott was transported by Whiteville Rescue to Columbus Regional where he was pronounced dead. A motive for the killing has not been released. Whiteville Police and the State Bureau of Investigation handled the case.
Wooten was previously charged with murder in 2017, according to court records. He was arrested for shooting death of Jacob Baldwin, a West Columbus High School football player, at a home on Jackson Street in 2016. Wooten was on house arrest at the time, and allegedly cut off his ankle monitor and went on a shooting spree in Chadbourn on Nov. 25-26, 2017, wounding one man and damaging several homes. A number of shooting incidents were reported in the town at that time.
A Columbus County grand jury refused to indict Wooten in the Baldwin killing, and he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was released from prison in May, according to the Department of Corrections (DOC), having 17 months in prison and being placed on post-release supervision.
Prior to the 2017 incident, Wooten allegedly shot Christopher Aaron Blackwell in Chadbourn during a dispute over marijuana. Blackwell was not seriously injured. He was placed on supervised release on charges of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, common law robbery, carrying a concealed weapon and narcotics possession in that case, according to DOC records
