Star Tribune
Minnesota Supreme Court upholds conviction of shooter in 2021 road rage incident
The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Chicago man in a 2021 road-rage incident in which he fatally shot a youth baseball coach on his way home from a game with his son.
Jamal Lindsey Smith is serving life in prison for his Hennepin County District Court murder convictions in the death of Jay Boughton, who was shot on Hwy. 169 in Plymouth while driving with his teenage son Harrison. After the shooting, it took two months to find and arrest Smith in Illinois after a frantic search for the SUV.
In the opinion written by Justice Margaret Chutich, the court brushed aside all defense claims on appeal, including ineffective assistance of counsel and a lack of Black residents in the pool of prospective jurors. The court also said it was appropriate for Judge Nicole Engisch to allow into evidence the alleged prior crimes of the defendant.
Chief Justice Natalie Hudson joined Chutich’s opinion along with Justices Anne McKeig and Gordon Moore. Justices Paul Thissen wrote and Justice Karl Procaccini signed a concurrence that highlighted a lack of representative diversity in jury pools.
“Ensuring that people of color serve as jurors is essential to the fair resolution of cases and to the public’s trust in our legal system,” the majority opinion read.
But in Smith’s case, the court rejected his claim that the jury pool lacked proportional representation of Black residents.
In a footnote, Chutich wrote that the Legislature can make jury service “more tenable” for residents of all races and lessen the need for recusals by increasing juror pay. The court asked the 2024 Legislature to increase the daily pay from $20 to $100 to offset lost wages, child care and related costs.
Thissen and Procaccini sounded more concerned about jury diversity and wrote that when a specific group, such as people of color, fails to consistently show up for jury duty, and the state fails to consider remedies, “that failure becomes systematic exclusion at some point.”
Thissen and Procaccini’s concurrence also cited a pilot study in San Francisco that found increasing participation from poor residents and people of color compared to white residents when juror pay was increased from $15 to $100 a day.
“The state of Minnesota can only ignore such evidence for so long,” Thissen’s concurrence said.
Justice Sarah Hennesy, who recently joined the court, did not participate in the decision.
Two cities that had reservations about approving plans to extend the Blue Line have have given their consent allowing work to move forward.
Robbinsdale and Crystal on Tuesday gave their support for the plan, joining Brooklyn Park, which gave its consent last week.
Minneapolis is set to vote on the proposal Wednesday, as is Hennepin County.
The affirmative votes from the two north metro suburbs are a critical step as planning continues for the light-rail line, which would run from downtown Minneapolis through Robbinsdale and Crystal on its way to Brooklyn Park. The line could cost between $2.9 and $3.2 billion.
Some residents in Robbinsdale hoped the City Council would vote no and cited a long list of concerns, including at-grade crossings along Bottineau Boulevard, a proposed parking garage at 40th and West Broadway, crime and the location of a station near North Memorial Health.
The Metropolitan Council projects the line could provide 12,000 to 13,000 rides a day. The line is projected to start in 2030.
Required by state law, municipal consent calls for cities and counties along a proposed light rail line to grant permission for the project to move forward.
The Westonka Library in Mound will remain open a few weeks longer than anticipated as officials finalize the plans for a new net-zero-energy facility.
Hennepin County officials have been saying for years that they need to replace the library, which opened in 1972. Last year, they presented plans for a new $17.5 million facility that will use geothermal and solar energy and will not need natural gas or refrigerants for heating and cooling.
Officials initially expected the current library building would close in December but now say it will remain open until January, with a specific closing date to be announced later this fall.
“As designs are reviewed and fine-tuned, so are the closure and construction timelines,” Joshua Yetman, a spokesperson for Hennepin County, said in an email.
Yetman said construction is expected to last 18 months, with the new building opening in the summer of 2026.
“While we’re excited to construct Hennepin County’s first net-zero library, we’re also trying to minimize the time between closure and demolition,” Yetman said. “Arrangements for alternate services, including holds pickup in Mound, are being finalized and will be included in the public announcement later this fall.”
Gov. Tim Walz referenced publicly for the first time Tuesday night during the national vice presidential debate that his 17-year-old son Gus had witnessed a shooting while playing volleyball at a rec center.
The shooting outside the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center occurred Jan. 18 and was widely reported, but Gus Walz’s presence that day wasn’t widely known until August when he became a sensation for standing up and tearfully supporting his dad, who was onstage at the Democratic National Convention at Chicago’s United Center.
After Gus Walz’s moment went viral, St. Paul Parks Aquatics Supervisor and coach David Albornoz posted on social media about his friendship with the governor’s son. Albornoz talked about how he came to know Gus Walz through his love of volleyball and post-match tacos.
He also talked about how Gus Walz was in the building when the shooting occurred in the parking lot at the Jimmy Lee, which sits on the corner of Selby Avenue across Lexington from Central High School. Albornoz wrote that Gus “helped keeping everyone safe and calm, looking after the kids in the gym with us as I rushed out.”
Gus was a sophomore then but is now a senior at Central High. A Walz spokesman confirmed that Gus Walz was present.
Last year, Exavir D. Binford Jr., a 27-year-old employee of the recreation center and a St. Paul resident, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the shooting. He was sentenced earlier this year to ten years in prison.
According to a criminal complaint:
Binford said a teenager, identified as J.T., and his group fought at Central and at Jimmy Lee. Binford said that Central staff had called to warn recreation center employees about trouble at the school and rec center staff locked the doors as a precaution, but a fight among girls began.
