Man admits guilt in road-rage case

A 65-year-old man accused of firing two gunshots at another motorist in an alleged road-rage incident on the H-1 freeway in February pleaded guilty in state court Wednesday to carrying a firearm without a permit and to reckless endangering.

Douglas Freeman faces a maximum 10-year prison term at sentencing in October. He has informed the court that he intends to ask for a deferral of his guilty pleas, which would give him the opportunity to avoid conviction and eventually clear the charges from his record.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, the prosecutor promised to drop a terroristic threatening charge and to reword the other charges to remove any mention that his firearm was a semiautomatic weapon. Without the change, Freeman would face a mandatory five-year minimum prison term.

As part of his plea, Freeman agreed with a statement of facts prepared by his lawyer and the prosecutor, which Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario read into the record.

The statement says Freeman was carrying a pistol on Feb. 24 for protection while going camping on the North Shore. On the way there another motorist tried to force him off the road and he reacted by firing the pistol.

Police said the bullets from Freeman’s gun hit the other motorist’s vehicle. The 23-year-old driver was unharmed.