A Hennepin County judge will allow prosecutors to play recordings of jailhouse calls made by a man accused of killing a youth baseball coach last summer in a road rage shooting on Hwy. 169.
Jamal Lindsey Smith, 34, of Chicago, was visibly upset Friday when Judge Nicole Engisch said the jury can hear the calls when court resumes on Monday. Smith was shaking his head and put his head in his hands.
Prosecutors say the calls show a consciousness of guilt by "trying to get witnesses to not cooperate or change their story." Smith, who has pleaded not guilty, allegedly told a witness to delete his Facebook account, where he posted a video July 6, hours before the shooting, of him in the SUV with a handgun. Two other occupants were shown in the video as well as two other guns.
Jay Boughton was driving his teenage son home from a ballgame July 6, 2021, when he was shot and killed in an encounter with an SUV in Plymouth. Harrison Boughton, 16, testified that the SUV was speeding and driving erratically when his dad honked his horn and flipped his middle finger before the shot from the SUV was fired, sending their vehicle into the ditch and crashing into an apartment parking lot.
A grand jury indicted Smith on first-degree murder charges. He's also charged with second-degree murder and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Smith's attorneys say there's reasonable doubt — that a passenger in the SUV could have fired the shot — and they objected to allowing the jailhouse calls in court. Attorney Emmett Donnelly argued the jury needs to draw a conclusion based on evidence, not the fact that Smith was incarcerated.
"It just becomes a character attack," he said, adding that there are "allegations of witness tampering that never happened."
The calls are with Smith's girlfriend, Rondelle Hardin, of St. Louis Park, whom Smith allegedly told to change her story, and another person whom he allegedly told to avoid a subpoena. Smith allegedly told Hardin to say he did not have a gun.
