Prison worker sentenced to 10 years in Dixon road rage case

DIXON – One of two men charged with shooting at a van driven by a Dixon man in a road rage case three years ago was sentenced Monday in Lee County Court to 10 years in prison.

Kennedy L. Jackson Jr., 28, of Helena, Arkansas, was driving a prisoner transport van for Inmate Services Corp. on Aug. 19, 2019, on Interstate 88 westbound, near Dixon, when he fired at David Brockman’s vehicle, hitting it all six times. No one was injured.

Jackson and his passenger, Courtney D. Gaines, 27, of Memphis, Tennessee, were indicted on attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm charges.

Jackson, who had been held in the Lee County jail on $1 million bond, was sentenced for discharging the firearm; the attempted murder charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Gaines has been free since posting $5,000 of his $50,000 bond on Oct. 11, 2019; he has a pretrial hearing Oct. 27.

Brockman sued the West Memphis, Arkansas company and the two men in Lee County Court for $1 million from each, plus costs for infliction of extreme emotional distress and post-traumatic distress, and Jackson for assault.

On Dec. 29, 2020, he was awarded a default judgment and Inmate Services and its president, Randy Cagle Jr., which failed to respond to the suit, were ordered to pay him $850,000 – $50,000 for counseling and the rest for emotional damages.

Jackson hired attorney, Daniel E. Radakovich and his associate, Mark A. Wolff of Chicago, to represent him in the civil suit. Gaines appears to have no attorney and has not appeared at any hearings of its hearings.

Brockman is represented by Paul Whitcombe of Dixon.

The action continues; a status hearing is set for Dec. 6.

According to the suit:

The prisoner transport van was westbound on I-88 with its brights on, Brockman moved into the lane in front of the van to get the driver’s attention, Jackson and Gaines switched lanes and pulled up alongside Brockman, who rolled down his window and yelled at them to “turn down your (expletive) lights.”

Concerned for the security of the inmates they were transporting, Jackson pulled a gun out from under his seat and Gaines told him to “scare the (expletive) out of Brockman. Jackson fired at Brockman’s vehicle; one of the rounds passed through a package of water bottles behind Brockman’s seat.

Gaines and Jackson pulled off the interstate and into the Dixon Road Ranger, and at the same time, Brockman, who had followed the van, pulled into the Pizza Hut parking lot across the street and called 911.

The entire incident was caught on Brockman’s dashcam.

Meanwhile, the two men left the road Ranger, called Inmate Services, told someone there what had happened and were told to “get rid of the evidence” by disposing of the gun.

Inmate Services was “on notice of the risks of the misuse of firearms in possession of their agents since at least 2018,” when an inmate in Missouri got ahold of a gun from under another driver’s seat ans shot himself to death, the suit said.