At a Sheridan School Board meeting last summer, the Sheridan Intermediate School cafeteria staff honored and remembered Chasity Taylor.
The horrific events around Taylor's murder continue to haunt Grant County a year later.
Jason Wesley Rucker, 43, appeared last week on video from the Sheridan Detention Center in Circuit Judge Stephen Shirron's courtroom for a hearing.
Rucker is charged with murder in the 1st Degree – a Class Y felony – and aggravated assault of a family or household member– a Class D felony.
The backstory
According to the crime sheet filed by the Grant County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, on January 22, 2025, deputies responded to a
a shooting.
Upon arrival, they found Taylor and her son. Rucker was Taylor's boyfriend and the son's father. Both Taylor and their son had been shot.
Rucker told 911 he had shot Taylor, according to the criminal information sheet.
"Post Miranda, the suspect, Jason Rucker, stated he shot his wife because she had a knife and was coming at him," according to the criminal information sheet. "Rucker said he did not mean to shoot his wife. Rucker noted the gun was his and that there was also a rifle in his car with Marijuana. A search
warrant of the car found 9mm ammo with the same head stamp as the casings recovered from the scene, a rifle, and a green leafy substance in a medical marijuana dispensary bag."
The report continued: "The surviving juvenile victim said Jason Rucker told Chasity Taylor, 'This is for my mother,' and then cocked the pistol and shot Taylor. The juvenile said he immediately ran out of the house behind his mother, where he was shot while escaping. Rucker said Taylor had beat up his mother two years prior and gotten away with it."
Rucker was arrested and held on a $5 million bond.
2016 and more threats
In 2023, Taylor filed for a protection against Rucker. On the "Lethality" form, she circled "yes" on this question: "Does the victim think the offender will try to kill the victim?"
At the time, Taylor put that Rucker did not own a firearm and could not get one easily.
Taylor also answered "yes" to a question about whether Rucker was following and spying on her and sending threatening messages.
When she filed for the protection order she wrote that Rucker had been arrested recently in Jefferson County for domestic battery.
Taylor wrote on another form that Rucker had hit her several times in the past – even attacking her while she was asleep. She wrote: "I don't feel safe around him. He just snaps and gets violent."
Grant County District Judge Billy Jack Gibson issued the protection order and extended it until a court date could be held. Court dates were continuously extended because of "no proof of service" on Rucker.
After several rescheduled hearings, Gibson filed an order to dismiss in September 2023 because Taylor failed to appear and prosecute the matter. Rucker did not appear either.
Taylor was not the first woman to ask for protection against Rucker.
In March 2016, a woman filed for an order of protection alledging Rucker threatened and slapped her. She wrote that Rucker had a gun and threatened "to shoot people and hisself." She alledged he was on crystal meth and ice and wrote that Rucker's "mind not clear. Suffers from paranoia."
She was granted a one-year order of protection.
Another woman in October 2016 filed for an order of protection against Rucker. The woman alledged Rucker choked and punched her. She also alledged he pulled a gun on her.
The woman received an order of protection, but the woman like Taylor failed to appear in court and an order of dismissal was issued.
According to a police report from the White Hall Police, Rucker's mother called law enforcement about her son.
The police report and other court documents state that Rucker's mother called 911 on Oct. 17, and said her son was "sitting inside a
green Suburban in the back of the residence with a pistol saying
that he wanted to kill himself." His mother said that "she did indeed see the gun and she believed her son was possibly on drugs."
By the time law enforcement arrived, Rucker was gone from the vehicle but found a Heritage
.22 revolver handgun "in plain sight lying in the floor," the report stated.
"Deputies later learned that Rucker dropped the weapon in the vehicle when Deputies arrived and fled the scene running into the woods," the report stated.
Deputies seized the weapon and ran the serial number. They learned Hunter's Refuge in White Hall had reported the gun stolen.
Ultimately, Rucker settled the case nolle prossed, meaning he was not guilty. The gun was returned to Hunters Refuge.
2025 Fitness to Proceed
In July 2025, Theresa Morris, a Grant County public defender, filed a motion for a fitness to proceed examination because of Rucker's previous behavioral issues, and it did not appear to Morris that he was able to "fully understand the charges and gravity of the situation at hand."
Shirron granted the motion.
A jury trial was initially scheduled for Nov. 5 but was canceled.
Shirron's judge's note dated Nov. 5 from Shirron stated Rucker was not fit to proceed per his evaluation.
The Reckoning sent a Freedom of Information request to the Grant County Clerk's office for Rucker's mental evaluation. Such records are public information under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The report submitted to the court on Oct. 14, 2025, states Rucker had a face-to-face interview by Sandra Michel, Psy. D. at the Arkansas State Hospital on Sept. 12, 2025.
The report stated Rucker "manifested symptoms of a substantially impairing mental disease but did not exhibit evidence of a mental defect. Based on his history, test data, and clinical presentation, he satisfies criteria for the following DSM-5-TR diagnosis:
- Unspecified Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorder
- Stimulant Use Disorder (Methamphetamine)
Rucker said during the evaluation that at the time of arrest for the current charges he was living in Pine Bluff with his mother and in Grant County with his son's mother. He said he was "financially contributing to both households."
The report also stated that at the time of his arrest he was "undergoing treatment for stomach cancer."
Rucker denied any previous legal involvement in his past.
He admitted to receiving displinary action in the Sheridan Detention Center since his arrest "due to a physical altercation with a fellow inmate."
He said of jail, "Time in jail bucks, I sleep to pass time, I read the Bible, watch TV, have some friends in jail."
The report also stated, "Mr. Rucker endorsed a history of methamphetamine use and reported that his substance of choice m, methamphetamine, had led to the greatest impairment in functioning and had the most detrimental impact on his life." He used the drug consistently from the time he was 18 until five years ago. He also smoked cannibas daily from age 13 until he was arrested.
Rucker, according to the evaluation, has had approximately 20 admissions of psychiatric hospitalization. Yet, he said that his mental health treatment did not start until he was 41.
When asked what happened, Rucker said, "The person I was with, her parents were trying to have me killed, first time my sister called, it wasn't voluntary, felt paranoid with sister about my life insurance abs my baby mama."
He said his mother and sister were paying police in Pine Bluff to put a hit out on him. He described a series of events possibly driven by paranoia and meth use: "Someone tried attacking my mom as well, one of them punched my mom in the house and that's when I started putting things together that it was my baby mama's family..."
The report stated that Rucker was polite and cooperative during the evaluation with "adequate attention" and concentration. At times Rucker "demonstrated meaningful communication. Specifically, his presentation alternated between a disorganized thought process embedded with delusional beliefs, following linear and goal directed responses."
Ultimately, Rucker was deemed not fit to proceed because while he had factual knowledge of his case, "he displayed some paranoid ideation surrounding various individuals in his legal case." Rucker "lacks a rational understanding of his current legal situation," the report said.
Rucker remains in the Sheridan Detention Center this week while waiting for a bed at the Arkansas State Hospital for treatment to restore him to fitness to stand trial.
As it stands now, Rucker returns to court May 5 for a hearing on whether he has been restored enough to stand trial.
