Wife, son of Plymouth road-rage shooting victim testify in murder trial

On what would've been Jay Boughton's 58th birthday, his wife and son took the witness stand in the murder trial of a man accused of killing him in a fit of road rage on a Plymouth highway last July.

Harrison Boughton, 16, said his dad was driving him home after a baseball game that was rained out in Coon Rapids when another vehicle was driving fast and swerving toward them on Hwy. 169. The teenager said his dad honked the horn and flipped the vehicle off, then he heard glass break and saw a small circle in the glass. He initially thought the driver threw a bottle at them.

He asked his dad if he was alright, but there was no response.

"There was blood on me and all over him," he said. "It was everywhere."

Jamal Lindsey Smith, 34, of Chicago is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the case experts called a clear case of road rage. Smith is pleading not guilty, and his attorneys argue that one of the other two occupants in the vehicle fired the fatal shot.

Prosecutor Erin Lutz said that July, 6, 2021, "should've been a day like any other," but a chance encounter changed the Boughton family forever." .

Lutz said that Smith, feeling disrespected and enraged by Boughton giving him the middle finger, rolled down the window, took aim and shot Boughton behind his left ear.

Defense attorney Kellen Dotson said the evidence does not support the allegations.

"The state would like for you to believe that Mr. Jamal Lindsey Smith, the driver of the SUV, was able to maintain that vehicle … in the rain, at night with the passenger seated beside him … take his eyes off the road, grab a firearm, shoot over that passenger and hit Mr. Jay Boughton."

The defense did little cross examination of witnesses on Monday that included residents and law enforcement officials.

A crowd of more than 80 supporters of Boughton's family filled the hallway outside the courtroom. Relatives, coaches, players and friends all wore yellow and buttons that read "Stay in the Light - Jay 07-06-2021."

"The family will not have much to say until it's all over, but we're here today wearing yellow in support. It represents courage, strength and staying in the light, and that's what we're all going to do," said Stephen Robinson, brother-in-law of Jay Boughton.

During her testimony, Kristin Boughton said everyone there that day is a testament to how much her husband was loved. She said he had "more friends than anyone I've ever met in my life," At at their wedding celebration nearly 18 years ago, of the 450 guests, she said, 20 were her friends; the rest were his.

Harrison and Kristin Boughton said in testimony that they didn't know Boughton was shot until an officer told them at the scene where his vehicle crashed next to an apartment complex .

"Both of us physically collapsed because we knew it was serious," Kristin said when they realized Boughton had been shot. They rushed to the hospital, where a doctor told Kristin that they lost him three times and tried everything they could, but he was pronounced dead.

Law enforcement and witnesses took the stand to describe the confusing scene that turned more severe than they first thought.

Jake Scharber-Pikula, a resident of the Plymouth apartment near where Boughton's vehicle crashed into several vehicles thought he overheard an argument outside.

He saw the crashed vehicle in the parking lot and a boy yelling for help, saying his dad's not moving. The driver was hunched over, and Scharber-Pikula noticed a lot of blood coming from his neck. He wrapped his sweatshirt around Jay Boughton's neck and applied pressure there from the backseat for 15 minutes and didn't stop because "I knew if I let go there wasn't going to be a chance."

Once EMTs took over, Scharber-Pikula said, "I gave the boy a hug and said I'm sorry."

Lisa Topp, the first Plymouth police officer to respond, said when she got a call about a car in the ditch, she figured she was responding to a drunken-driving incident.

Topp said she saw tire tracks and expected to see a person running on foot. She thought she saw a man at first frantically running toward her.

"As he came at me, I could see he's just a boy," she said. "In a baseball uniform, bloody, and [he] said, 'I need help. My dad is bleeding badly.' "

At the scene, she saw Scharber-Pikula rendering aid.

"The trauma to this man's face and head did not match anything that I was saw as far as the damage to this truck. Based upon all my experience there would be some type of damage to the windshield that might explain the injuries. ... It was really confusing."

It wasn't until Topp's partner, officer Quincy Grabau, arrived at the scene and discovered the slug of a large-caliber handgun next to the driver's seat that they realized there was a shooting.

The vehicle Smith allegedly shot from was abandoned in north Minneapolis, and he was arrested in Illinois seven weeks after the shooting.

His attorneys ahead of opening statements Monday morning tried to prohibit so-called "spark of life" testimony, which is intended to humanize a victim. Judge Nicole Engisch said she would allow it but would advise jurors to consider facts, not sympathy or emotions.

Engisch late last week also denied defense motions to dismiss the first-degree murder indictment while she granted the prosecution's evidence that shows Smith in possession of firearms before and after the shooting.

Police in Wisconsin reported seeing Smith and others in the rental vehicle brandishing firearms to another vehicle in the hours before the shooting while driving from Chicago to Minnesota.

On the day of the shooting, Smith posted a Facebook Live video of him in the front passenger seat brandishing a semiautomatic handgun with extended magazine.

Upon Smith's arrest, officer recovered .45-caliber ammunition in his pocket — the same ammo that allegedly killed Boughton.

Testimony continues Tuesday morning.