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Man, 19, arraigned in attack on Mormon missionaries

The Virginian-Pilot, USA
Feb. 4, 2006
John Hopkins
home.hamptonroads.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Saturday February 4, 2006

CHESAPEAKE – James R. Boughton Jr. was arraigned Friday morning in Chesapeake General District Court on charges that he fatally shot a Mormon missionary and wounded another last month .

Judge Robert Carter scheduled Boughton’s preliminary hearing for April 21 . Boughton, who is being held without bond, will be represented by attorney Kenneth Melvin.

Boughton, 19, faces prosecution for the shootings in the Deep Creek community on Jan. 2. It was Chesapeake’s first homicide of the year in Chesapeake.

Morgan W. Young, 21, of Bountiful, Utah, was fatally shot as he went door to door on Elkhart Street with another Mormon missionary. Young was pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

The second missionary, Joshua Heidbrink, 19, was wounded and has since returned to his home in Greeley, Colo.

Boughton, a resident of the 3100 block of Sir Meliot Drive in Camelot, was arrested days after the shooting. The arraignment Friday was conducted via a video link from the jail.

The evening that Young was fatally shot, he was doing what thousands of missionaries have done throughout the world. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commit to missionary work from 18 months to two years, at their own expense. The majority of the missionaries are young men, who have received two to three weeks of orientation at a training center that focuses on church doctrine and teaching skills.

The shootings were determined to not be hate crimes.