A Tennessee woman has been handed four life sentences for her involvement in a grisly quadruple murder that included the killing of her child's father and the abduction of her 10-month-old son, officials said. Jazzmine Jacole Hall, 29, from Athens, plead guilty to the September 2021 killings just as jury selection for her trial was set to begin, according to a report from Times Free Press.
On the fateful morning of Sept. 25, 2021, the four victims, identified as Trevon Hall, Skylar Hawn, Jesse Dupree, and Brandi Harris, were found dead at a home in Riceville, in an altercation that District Attorney General Shari Tayloe described as stemming from a dispute over the infant. Hall was sentenced to "four, true life sentences," Tayloe clarified in a statement obtained by Times Free Press. "There is no release ever" she added, indicating the gravity of the crime and the sentence doled out.
Details of the case emerged indicating a harrowing scene where Jazzmine Hall, after taking her child, fatally shot the baby's father in the face. Then, co-defendant Curtis Donnel Smith was alleged to have been instructed by Hall to "finish them off," a claim supported by witness accounts, one of whom survived by pretending to be dead, as per court documents cited by Times Free Press. The two were also accused of starting a fire to cover their tracks before fleeing the crime scene.
The life sentence for Hall closes one chapter of this case, with the spotlight now shifting to co-defendant Curtis Smith, aged 41, who still faces the death penalty, with his trial slated for Sept. 9, as noted by WPDE. McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy had previously called the slayings some of the worst in the county's history. The child involved in the abduction was safely recovered and turned over to the Tennessee Department of Children's Services.
While Hall will spend her life behind bars, the community still reels from the traumatic events of that day. Steven Lemke, who was injured during the incident, relayed to WATE that the shooting was "a nightmare." This sentiment encapsulates the depth of the tragedy that not only took the lives of four individuals but also left an indelible mark on the survivors and the Riceville neighborhood forever changed by a custody dispute turned deadly.
