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Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers in the afternoon. High 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Cloudy with periods of rain. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Updated: May 17, 2024 @ 2:10 am
Jalen O’Keith Watlington, 25, was convicted of a 2017 shooting and sentenced to six to eight years in prison.
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A driver honking a horn at a Toyota Carola backing into the road was apparently what triggered a potentially deadly reaction from two men, one of whom will serve six to eight years in prison after his trial last week.
Jalen O’Keith Watlington, 25, was already serving a prison sentence for another shooting in Pitt County in 2018 less than a year after the one in Burlington that left a 32-year-old woman with a serious injury to her right eye. So the clock won’t start running on this sentence until 2025, and Watlington will likely be in prison well into his 30s.
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It could have been a significantly longer sentence, but Watlington's jury found him guilty of misdemeanor assault by pointing a gun rather than the more serious charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury as well as discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle.
“It appears to us that the jury was convinced that our client did not fire the weapon,” said Watlington’s lawyer Octavis White Jr. “I think they understood that his passenger Jaquan Williams actually fired the gun but the jury was also instructed on the theory of acting in concert.”
Williams, in fact, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury in 2018, according to the state Department of Public Safety, and is now serving a six-year sentence for the shooting. He could be released next year.
Just after 4 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2017, Watlington backed a car onto North Church Street crossing several lanes and nearly hitting another car, according to the Alamance County District Attorney’s Office and a Burlington Police incident report.
The driver of that other car, a Chevrolet Impala, dodged Watlington’s Carola and honked the horn. Watlington and Williams both brandished pistols in what the victim called a road-rage incident, according to the district attorney.
Both cars headed toward downtown. The victim called 911 and gave the operator Watlington’s license plate number. The impala’s driver then turned onto Jeffries Street. Watlington’s car was already there, however, and at least one shot was fired from the Carola, according to the district attorney, hitting the Impala’s windshield.
Bullet fragments and glass hit the victim in the face. A helicopter took her to UNC Hospitals for emergency medical treatment. She suffered serious, permanent injury to her right eye but was still able to identify Watlington after he was arrested later that day.
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Burlington man gets at least six years for 2017 shooting
