Chicago man gets life in prison for fatal road rage shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Chicago man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for the highway shooting death of a Minnesota man in what authorities said was a road rage incident.

Three months ago jurors found Jamal Smith, 34, guilty of three counts in the July 2021 death of 56-year-old Jay Boughton, of Crystal. Boughton was shot in the head as he drove his son home from a baseball game in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth.

Smith appeared virtually in a Hennepin County courtroom that was packed with Boughton's family and supporters, who also filled an overflow observation room.

District Judge Nicole Engisch handed down the mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder and also imposed concurrent sentences for second-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The automatic life sentence comes with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

Before Engisch sentenced Smith, Boughton’s family described the impact his death has had on them.

Boughton's wife, Kristin, held back sobs as she described getting a phone call from her son telling her Jay was hurt and driving up to the scene with her heart beating so loud she could hear it in her head.

“That night evil shot Jay and hurt my son. Do you know who I am?” she said, addressing Smith. “I am Kristin, the grieving wife of Jay Boughton, the mother of Jay’s children, who didn’t get to say goodbye to him. He died without us being with him, to hold him, to tell him we loved him.”

When given his opportunity to speak Smith talked about how he has been disrespected and slandered in court, been denied his rights, and been the subject of what Smith called “a witch hunt,” KARE-TV reports.

“I’m being held accountable for actions that I did not do,” he insisted.

Boughton and his teenage son, Harrison, were returning from a baseball game when Boughton was shot and killed the night of July 6, 2021. Investigators say the shooting occurred following a short road rage incident between the two men.

Smith was arrested the following month in Decatur, Illinois, and transported back to Minnesota.