Chicago man indicted for 1st-degree murder in highway death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Chicago man accused of fatally shooting another man in the head on a Minnesota highway after an apparent road-rage incident has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge, prosecutors said Friday.

Jamal Smith, 33, had already been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the July death of 56-year-old Jay Boughton. In Minnesota, the count of premeditated first-degree murder must be charged by a grand jury; Smith will face a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted.

The Star Tribune reported that bail was set at $3.5 million.

The voicemail for Smith’s attorney said he was out of the office Friday and an email message sent by The Associated Press received an automatic out-of-office reply.

Investigators have said Boughton was shot in the head as he drove his son home from a baseball game on Highway 169 in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth. Police have said a traffic altercation between the two drivers “escalated quickly,” and Smith may have killed Boughton, of Crystal, over something as minor as a lane change.

Boughton’s vehicle then went through a fence and crashed in the parking lot of an apartment complex where his 15-year-old son, Harrison, gave him CPR.