Arizona man avoids jail time after shooting doctor to death in road rage incident

An Arizona man has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to shooting a doctor in a road rage incident in the Tucson area. The victim’s widow, Alyssa Honer, said she was "astounded" by the verdict. 

In March of 2024, Doctor Jeffrey Honer was shot by Jason Scott Jameson as Honer walked away from Jameson’s vehicle after a confrontation on a Tucson road. Jameson had called 911 and attempted to save the doctor’s life with first aid, per KGUN.

Jameson’s lawyers had suggested in court that the shooting was self-defense, but he ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of negligent homicide. He had first been charged with manslaughter. Under Arizona law, Jameson could have been sentenced to between one and nearly four years in prison, but was instead sentenced to the maximum four years of probation that the law allows for. 

Alyssa Honer told the outlet, "well, we are astounded at the verdict. We did not anticipate and expect that this is what would happen, especially after we heard the judge and how he himself felt. It was a horrible case. He was emotional. The judge was emotional, which to me, meant that he felt strongly in our particular case, and then the punishment did not fit the crime."

Judge Howard Fell reportedly teared up while discussing the case, and told people as they were about to leave the courtroom, "I’m so sick of gun violence. I’ve seen it for, 50 years. I was a prosecutor, then a judge for 28 years and it’s just sickening, the gun violence in our country. Alright. Done. Thanks."

Honer’s family said that he had been on the way to a patient’s home at the time of the shooting. Alyssa Honer said, "It was his last patient of the day, it was a Friday afternoon, The nurses and him were in separate vehicles," per the Daily Mail. She added, "He was supposed to, you know, jump in his car and come home to us. He had his suitcase in the trunk and he was ready to come home."

Jameson told the court, "I reacted out of fear. And I don’t know how to reconcile with it."

During the hearing, Jameson’s defense team told the court that their client and Honer had in common their strong faith and two young children. Kenneth Honer, Jeff Honer’s brother, rejected the parallel drawn, saying, "The difference between the two couldn’t be clearer. Jeff was a man who taught Seminary in the morning; six o'clock in the morning to teenagers. He took in a Ukrainian family he didn't know. He gave his time and his money and his talents to help others consistently."