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Jamal Smith, 33, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of beloved coach Jay Boughton

A Facebook video helped Plymouth police link Smith to the shooting.

PLYMOUTH, Minnesota — Formal charges were filed Friday night against the man accused of shooting and killing a popular northwest metro baseball coach on Highway 169 in early July.

Thirty-three-year-old Jamal Lindsey Smith of Chicago is charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of aiding an offender - accomplice after the fact.

The first charge carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, while the second carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Police say Smith shot and killed Jay Boughton July 6 as he and his son drove home from a baseball game.

Plymouth Police Chief Erik Fadden said the Boughton family was grateful to learn of Smith's arrest last week.

Chief Fadden said Smith was arrested in Decatur, Illinois on Tuesday by a team of Plymouth detectives, U.S. Marshals and Decatur police officers.

Smith is currently in custody in Illinois awaiting extradition to Minnesota.

After repeated requests for tips, court records reveal a Facebook Livestream video helped them crack the case.

It was posted on July 6 - just hours before the 169 murder - showing one man with a gun on his lap and another man with a gun in the back seat.

But how did police find it and connect it to the murder? 

After police released a description of the SUV, search warrants obtained by KARE 11 show they got a tip from a local towing company.

It was an abandoned rental car - a Chevy Suburban matching the description with a Colorado plate.

When investigators checked the plate and the address of the person who rented it, they checked security video of a nearby gas station and identified a man driving the same SUV. 

And when they checked his social media posts, they discovered the video.

It was 33-year-old Jamal Smith earlier on the same day of the shooting waving a gun. Police say it matches the type of gun used in the shooting.

At one point, the video shows a passenger in the car and later, another man in the back seat – also holding a gun.

After reviewing those images, investigators told a judge the interior of the car matches the abandoned SUV they’ve seized and have been processing.

Pulling all those pieces together, the search warrants we obtained show police were able to trace the suspected shooter’s entire route.

The SUV left a vet clinic in Arden Hills just minutes before it was shown entering I-694.  

The traffic cam video shows the same SUV speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, following it all the way to Highway 169 where authorities say MNDOT video shows the SUV trying to change lanes – apparently blocked by the coach’s car – when the shooting occurred.

Finally, a police report shows authorities were able to track Smith down in Decatur, Illinois by tracing where he last posted on Facebook.

That last post said, "Sometimes it's your friends who keep your enemies updated about you... Be careful."

 

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