BAY MINETTE, Ala. — The Smith-Bracy jury will begin deliberating Thursday in the capital murder trial of Jared Smith-Bracy after spending Wednesday afternoon listening to prosecutors and defense attorneys make their final arguments over the 2023 killings of four people inside a Daphne home.
Smith-Bracy is accused of killing his grandmother, Barbara Smith; his grandfather, Leonard Smith; his brother, Jeremy Smith; and family friend Shelia Glover at a house on Melanie Loop in the Lake Forest neighborhood in February 2023. Prosecutors say he used a handgun and a pickax. His defense has argued he was suffering from schizophrenia and could not tell right from wrong, and in closing it went further, suggesting someone else may have committed the crimes.
Baldwin County Circuit Judge Scott Taylor is expected to instruct the jury when court reconvenes at 9 a.m. Thursday, after which deliberations will begin.
The State’s Closing: 38 Blows and an Empty Magazine
Prosecutors used their summation to remind jurors of the scale of the violence. They told the jury that Smith-Bracy struck 38 blows with the pickax and emptied a 15-round magazine during the killings — and that he did it because he felt disrespected after being told to do the dishes.
The state also pointed jurors back to Smith-Bracy’s own words. Prosecutors said that in an interview with Daphne police immediately after the shootings, he told investigators he had shot the victims and struck them with the pickax. Forensic evidence presented during the trial showed the pickax struck the four victims 38 times.
Prosecutors described Glover as a “damn good friend and hero.” Testimony earlier in the trial showed that Glover and other members of the family’s church had urged Barbara Smith to leave the house that day.
The Defense: ‘Epic, Systematic Failure’
Defense attorney Thomas Pilcher attacked the investigation itself, calling it an “epic, systematic failure” and accusing authorities of rushing to arrest his client on questionable evidence. He told jurors it was more likely the killings were a robbery carried out by a “random evil person.”
The defense also suggested that the police questioning of Smith-Bracy was leading and could have confused him — an argument aimed at the statements prosecutors leaned on so heavily.
Throughout the trial, Smith-Bracy’s lawyers have maintained that he suffered from schizophrenia at the time of the killings and, because of his mental state, did not know that what he was doing was wrong. In opening statements the week before, the defense told jurors the schizophrenia was undiagnosed at the time and asked them to find him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Teresa Heinz answered Pilcher directly. She told jurors she agreed that an evil person had done this, but said it was not a random one. It was Smith-Bracy, she said.
What Jurors Heard Over Five Days
Testimony began Wednesday, Sept. 16, and ran for five days. Jurors heard from family friends who were on the phone with Barbara Smith when gunshots rang out inside the home, as well as investigators and expert witnesses who testified about DNA evidence collected at the scene.
Early witnesses described a collective fear for the family’s safety that grew out of Smith-Bracy’s arrest earlier on the day of the killings, Feb. 22, 2023, on a criminal mischief charge. Glover and other church members urged Barbara Smith to leave the house before he got out of jail, according to testimony. She had agreed to go, witnesses said, but first wanted to make sure her husband had something to eat.
In the time it took two friends to go through a nearby fast-food drive-through and return, all four victims had been killed, according to testimony. Jurors were also shown body-worn camera footage from responding officers and the clothing Smith-Bracy was wearing when he was arrested near the backyard of the home.
Background on the Case
Daphne police said in 2023 that the victims were Jeremy Smith, 27; Barbara Smith, 72; Leonard Smith, 80; and Glover, 71. Smith-Bracy was 21 at the time.
According to what police described after the killings, Smith-Bracy had been arrested that morning for criminal mischief over damage to a door at the residence. He bonded out around 5 p.m. and got a ride back to the house. Police said he took a Glock handgun belonging to the driver who brought him there and forced his way inside. Calls to 911 reporting gunfire began shortly after 6 p.m., and officers found him hiding in a wooded area behind the home, police said at the time.
“He was very cooperative in his interview, very polite but showed no remorse,” Daphne police Sgt. Jason Vannoy said in 2023.
Smith-Bracy has been held in the Baldwin County Jail for about three and a half years awaiting trial. The trial is being held at the Baldwin County courthouse in Bay Minette.
The Choices in Front of the Jury
Along with capital murder, jurors will have a number of lesser included charges to consider, meaning they may convict on a less serious offense if they find the state has not proven every element of capital murder.
The burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt rests with the prosecution. The mental-state defense works differently. Under Alabama Code § 13A-3-1, a defendant may be found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect only if, at the time of the offense, a severe mental disease or defect left him unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts. The defense carries the burden of proving that, and the standard is clear and convincing evidence.
A diagnosis alone is not enough under the statute; the condition must be tied to an inability to appreciate wrongfulness at the moment of the crime. A defendant found not guilty on those grounds in Alabama is not simply released. The court may order commitment proceedings, and the person can be confined to the custody of the state Department of Mental Health subject to periodic review.
Death Penalty Off the Table
Capital murder in Alabama is defined by aggravating circumstances listed in Alabama Code § 13A-5-40, among them killing two or more people through one act or as part of one scheme or course of conduct. A capital conviction normally carries either death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In this case, the death penalty is not being sought. If Smith-Bracy is convicted of capital murder, the maximum sentence would be life in prison without parole.
What Happens Thursday
Court reconvenes at 9 a.m. Thursday. Judge Taylor will read the jury its instructions — the legal definitions of each charge, the elements the state must prove and the standard for the mental-disease defense — and the panel will then retire to deliberate.
There is no set deadline for a verdict. Smith-Bracy is presumed innocent unless and until the jury finds otherwise.