A Colorado man has been convicted of first-degree murder for a 2018 killing that stemmed from a road rage confrontation and ended in the man shooting and killing a 13-year-old boy.
Jeremy Webster, 28, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the incident that saw the young boy lose his life, along with his mother, brother, and a witness being shot on June 14, 2018.
The jury in the case needed less than three hours to come to its decision and reject Webster’s insanity claim, instead finding him guilty of all 12 charges brought against him, KDVR reported.
After his conviction, the judge overseeing the case quickly handed out Webster’s sentence, the Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors said that during his argument with the boy’s mother, Meghan Bigelow, Webster accused her of cutting him off on the road. Eventually, Webster escalated the situation, pulling out a gun and firing at the woman and her sons.
During her testimony in the case, Bigelow recalled the sequence of events after Webster pulled his firearm. Attempting to get him away from her sons, Bigelow said she started distancing herself from them so that he would focus on her.
“I yelled to the boys he’s got a gun, run,” she testified, KDVR reported.
Prosecutors say that Webster then shot Bigelow, who fell to the ground, before shooting her 7-year-old son in the back of the head; firing at her 12-year-old son, who ran for help; and then firmly pressing the gun against her 13-year-old’s head, he fired, killing the boy, 9News reported.
When police found Webster, he told them that he was not in control of his body while carrying out the attack but that he had watched his “arm doing the shooting,” the AP reported.
Webster’s defense team argued that he had been losing his mind for years and that during the attack he lost control of his body and emotions.
“His mind betrayed him very early on, and it continued all the way through June 14, 2018, and it is going to continue for the rest of his life,” his lawyer, Rachel Oliver, said during the trial, the AP reported.
The insanity plea would have sent Webster to a mental hospital to receive treatment instead of prison, but the jury was not convinced.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Webster was sane and acted deliberately with intent when he followed the family into the parking lot of their dentist almost 5 years ago.
To illustrate his intentions, prosecutors told jurors that the impression of the gun could be seen on the 13-year-old’s head.
“It doesn’t get more intentional and deliberate than that,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Prince said during closing arguments.
Along with life in prison, Webster was sentenced to an additional 192 years on attempted murder and assault counts. Webster is not eligible for parole.
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