Appeals court upholds conviction in road-rage shooting

Robert Lee Vincent Sr. was convicted in April of second-degree murder in the July 27, 2006, shooting death of Kenneth McLaurin, 11.

Posted 2:31 p.m. Mar 17, 2009 — Updated 2:41 p.m. Mar 17, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Northampton County man who fatally shot a boy in the head following a case of road rage.

Robert Lee Vincent Sr. was convicted in April of second-degree murder in the July 27, 2006, shooting death of Kenneth McLaurin, 11. He is serving an 18- to 22-year prison sentence.

But Vincent argued that the judge erred, in part, by failing to give the jury proper instructions for deliberating the case. The appeals court unanimously disagreed with all of Vincent's claims.

Prosecutors said Vincent followed McLaurin's family from a gas station to their home and, after an argument with the boy's stepfather, John McLaurin, shot the boy in the forehead. He then got back into his truck and drove to a friend's home in Virginia, where police arrested him four days later.

Vincent testified that John McLaurin had cursed at him for blocking a driveway and that he followed McLaurin because he thought he heard him kick or hit his truck.

Suggest A Correction