Burnet woman gets 15 years for her role in 2009 shooting
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
BURNET — A Burnet County jury sentenced 42-year-old Linda Sue Cowan of Burnet to 15 years in prison for getting her son to shoot another woman in December 2009.
The jury handed down the punishment Feb. 27 in State District Judge Dan Mills courtroom.
According to a 2010 indictment, Cowan asked or influenced her son to shoot the victim.
On Dec. 18, 2009, Burnet County deputies responded to a shooting about 2 a.m. in the 400 block of Deer Springs Drive in the Deer Springs subdivision located west of Burnet. Investigators told The Daily Tribune at the time that a woman reported somebody shot her from just outside her residence.
The bullet from a small-caliber weapon grazed the victim’s head and ricocheted through a pillow on her bed, where her two children were sleeping, deputies said after the incident. The two children were unharmed, but the woman was transported to Seton Williamson County Medical Center in Round Rock, where she was treated and released.
Police told The Tribune after the shooting there apparently was an on-going feud between the victim and the alleged shooter’s family who lived about 300 yards away from the woman’s residence.
Based on the victim’s description of the shooter and other information, deputies arrested Vinson Cowan, 22, later the same day. Investigators said they were able to match gunpowder residue from the scene with that found on the alleged shooter’s clothing.
The man was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
In June 2010, a Burnet County Grand Jury indicted the man and Linda Sue Cowan, his mother, for their alleged involvement in the shooting.
Linda Sue Cowan was initially indicted on criminal solicitation of murder, but that charge was dismissed in June 2011 before she was indicted on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
According to the 2010 indictment, Cowan asked or influenced her son to shoot the neighbor.
Burnet County Assistant District Attorney Peter Keim, who prosecuted Linda Sue Cowan, said he couldn’t make a statement on the reason behind the shooting due to the case pending against her son.
Linda Sue Cowan faced up to 20 years in prison.
According to court records, Vinson Cowan is scheduled to go to trial March 25.
daniel@thepicayune.com