BAY MINETTE, Ala. — A Baldwin County jury on Thursday found Jared Smith-Bracy guilty of capital murder in the February 2023 killings of four people at a home in the Lake Forest area of Daphne, bringing a verdict more than three and a half years after a crime that investigators and prosecutors say was unlike anything they had ever seen.
Jurors convicted Smith-Bracy on one count of capital murder of two or more victims in the deaths of his grandmother, 72-year-old Barbara Smith; his grandfather, 80-year-old Lenard Smith; his brother, 27-year-old Jeremy Smith; and 71-year-old Sheila Glover, a longtime friend of the family who had come to the home to help. The panel deliberated for a little more than three hours after a week of testimony that included more than 35 hours of evidence.
As Baldwin County Circuit Judge Scott Taylor announced the verdict, relatives of the victims, who filled the courtroom, nodded their heads in thanks.
‘It is not closure, but we are thankful’
For the family and friends who sat through six days of testimony, the verdict brought relief, but not a sense of victory. One by one, they filed out of the courtroom after the decision was read.
“We are so thankful, very thankful,” said Rose White-Parker, one of Glover’s sisters. “It’s not closure, but we’re thankful. There are no winners in a situation like this.”
Glover’s sisters, White-Parker, Mary Wilkerson and Diana Glover-Samuel, described how difficult it was to sit through the trial and relive the details of their sister’s death.
“Oh, God. It was tough. It was awful. It really was,” they said. “But we know the man named God so we good. We good. And we don’t ask why. It’s hard not to ask why, but we know she did what she does.”
‘More than just a family friend’
Throughout the trial, Glover was often described as a family friend. Her sisters said that description never captured who she was.
“I think everybody learned yesterday she was more than just a family friend,” Glover-Samuel said.
Glover was the oldest of 11 children, her sisters said, a retired sergeant and the kind of person who showed up whenever someone needed help. They said she went to the Smith home on the day of the killings after learning that Barbara Smith was under stress, hoping she could help persuade her to leave the house safely before Smith-Bracy returned.
“She died doing what she always did — helping people and loving on people,” her sisters said.
Glover-Samuel called her sister a hero.
“She was a wonderful person. Number one. Number one out of eleven children. She was my hero,” she said. “To know her is to love her. Nobody has anything bad to say about Sheila Glover. Everyone needs a Sheila in their family. They do.”
How the violence unfolded
According to testimony and statements from police and prosecutors, the day began with a family argument on the morning of Feb. 22, 2023. Barbara Smith told her grandson to do the dishes, and he became enraged and tried to break down a bedroom door to get to her. His grandparents called police to their Melanie Loop home to report the damaged door, and Smith-Bracy was arrested.
Because Alabama law at the time did not allow domestic violence charges in cases involving grandparents, Smith-Bracy was charged only with criminal mischief. He bonded out of jail later that afternoon.
Investigators said a friend drove Smith-Bracy back to the house after his release. Police said he took the driver’s Glock handgun, forced his way into the home and began firing. Glover had gone to the house to get the grandparents out before he came back, but he arrived before that could happen.
Barbara Smith, Jeremy Smith and Glover were found outside the home. Police said Lenard Smith was beaten to death with a pickax in a bedroom, and investigators said Smith-Bracy later used the pickax to attack the victims outside as well. Prosecutors told jurors he struck 38 blows with the pickax and emptied a 15-round magazine during the killings, all because he felt disrespected for being told to do the dishes. Daphne police made an arrest that same night.
Prosecutor: ‘Nothing that you ever forget’
Baldwin County Chief Assistant District Attorney Teresa Heinz, who went to the crime scene the night of the killings, said the case was unlike anything many of those involved had encountered.
“I think Sergeant Vannoy said it best when he was on the scene and afterwards when he was talking to Jared in his interview and he said, ‘I ain’t never seen anything like this,'” Heinz said. “I was able to walk that scene that night and it’s nothing that you ever forget.”
Heinz said jurors were attentive throughout the trial, and that the verdict showed prosecutors had met their burden.
“I think what it indicates to me is that we proved our case and we bore that burden and we proved it to them beyond a reasonable doubt,” Heinz said. “We know that they had a few questions, and I think they came to the consensus and their consensus was guilty.”
She also said the case was difficult for her team given the relationship between the victims and the defendant, and she credited the Daphne Police Department and the investigators who worked the scene and spent years on the case.
“They lived this case,” Heinz said. “They’re the ones that walked out onto that scene and saw those horrific things, and then had to go back in and do their job.”
Like the victims’ family, Heinz said the verdict could not be considered a win.
“There’s no winners here,” she said. “Justice was served. But the loss of four lives — four extraordinary lives that could have gone on to do so much more — that’s not a win. It’s justice, but it’s not a win.”
Defense says ‘justice was not served’
Smith-Bracy had pleaded not guilty, and his defense raised mental health concerns throughout the trial, arguing he suffered from undiagnosed schizophrenia at the time of the killings. In closing arguments, the defense went further, describing the investigation as a systematic failure and suggesting that a “random evil person” had committed the crimes.
After the verdict, defense attorney Thomas Pilcher said he disagreed with the outcome.
“Justice was not served,” Pilcher said, maintaining that his client is mentally ill and that there is no direct evidence he committed the crimes.
Life without parole is the only possible sentence
Under Alabama law, a capital murder conviction typically carries one of two sentences: death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. In this case, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
That means Smith-Bracy’s only possible sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Barring a successful appeal, he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge Taylor has not yet set a sentencing date, and the judge said an order on sentencing will be issued.
A case that exposed a gap in the law
The circumstances that led up to the killings drew attention to how Alabama law treated violence against grandparents at the time. Because the morning dispute involved Smith-Bracy’s grandparents rather than a spouse, partner or parent, he could not be charged with a domestic violence offense, and he was released on a criminal mischief charge only hours before the shootings.
For those who loved the victims, Thursday’s verdict closes one chapter of a long wait. As Glover’s sisters left the courthouse, they said they would continue to grieve, but they were grateful that the jury had heard their sister’s story and the story of the Smith family.
“It’s not closure,” White-Parker said. “But we’re thankful.”