Death penalty sought for eight who ‘filmed themselves kidnapping, raping and torturing woman to death’
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a group of eight suspects in the brutal murder of a young mother.
The development, filed Friday by Deputy District Attorney Charissa Henrich, is the latest surrounding the murder of Mahogany Jackson.
The 20-year-old from Birmingham was captured for several hours on the night of February 24, during which time she was attacked and repeatedly sodomized.
She was eventually shot in the back of the head on February 26, on the side of a road in a remote part of the Alabama city.
Hours earlier, she had managed to text her mother to say she had been kidnapped, frantically asking for help.
Before that, she was stripped naked, handcuffed, beaten, spit on and forced to perform sex acts, detectives said – adding that much of the ordeal was recorded.
Over the course of many months, all eight suspected perpetrators – Brandon Pope, 25, Francis “Ace” Harris, 25, Jeremiah McDowell, 19, Blair Green, 26, Si’Niya McCall, 24, Teja Lewis, 26, Giovonnie Clapp, 24, and Airana Lashay Robinson, 23, were handcuffed.
All eight – four men and four women – are charged with murder, a crime Henrich said would warrant execution.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a group of eight suspects in the brutal murder of 20-year-old Mahogany Jackson. The development, filed Friday by Deputy District Attorney Charissa Henrich, is the latest surrounding the February slaying
All suspects are charged with murder after police said they captured the local mother for several hours on the night of February 24 before shooting her dead.
‘The capital crime [in this case] was especially heinous, heinous, or cruel compared to other capital crimes,” she wrote about the case.
The motion was intended to inform the presiding court of the decision of the Public Prosecution Service to seek the death penalty in the event that the suspects are convicted of the crime.
That said, a litany of other offenses are included in the docket, including charges of sodomy against six of the eight suspects, two of whom are women.
Testimony shows that Harris — who is also charged with murder during a rape/sodomy — is the suspect who fired the fatal shot, investigators and prosecutors have said after piecing together what they believe happened.
Several suspects, meanwhile, claimed in court that the story started with a stolen gun, saying they had previously taken the gun from one of them, but exactly when remains unclear.
The defendants said this paved the way for her to steal the gun and some money from Jakson’s purse, allegedly causing her to show up at Pope’s house the day she died in an attempt to get back what she said was hers.
Prosecutors have argued that this is not the case, saying she was taken there against her will much earlier, before being subjected to a barrage of cruel, brutal torture.
Officers’ investigation into the incident began on February 25, when Jackson’s family first received messages claiming they were being held against her will. She also sent her location, which was her boyfriend Lewis’s apartment, not Pope’s.
During that time, police say they were repeatedly attacked and sodomized — with six of the eight suspects, including the women, charged with sodomy.
Officers’ investigation into the incident began on February 25, when Jackson’s family first received messages claiming they were being held against her will. She also sent her location, which was her boyfriend Lewis’s apartment, not Pope’s (far left) – as suspects had previously claimed
The messages were sent around 4 a.m. but were not seen by the family until four hours later, at which point relatives and police came in full force to Lewis’ apartment, seen here
Lewis is one of two charged not with sodomizing the deceased, but with assault while intentionally causing great bodily harm with a deadly weapon.
The messages were sent around 4 a.m. but were not seen by the family until four hours later, at which time relatives and police came to Lewis’ apartment in full force.
The woman initially denied Jackson had been there, before coming back and claiming she had left around 2am.
A search ensued, leading to Jackson’s body being discovered the next morning on a street commonly known as Dead Man’s Road, a known dumping ground for illegal waste.
Det. of Birmingham Police Mark Green added in court how much of the evidence against the eight was collected after a witness came forward early in the investigation – including videos, other unspecified evidence and the location of Jackson’s body .
That witness, Det. Green said he came forward to clear his name after being accused on Facebook of involvement in Jackson’s disappearance.
Green admitted in court that Jackson may have stolen a gun from someone, and then someone stole it back from her, and she was upset.
That, he said, likely led to her violent death and the actions that had taken place hours earlier.
A search ensued, leading to Jackson’s body being discovered the next morning on a street commonly known as Dead Man’s Road, a known dumping ground for illegal waste.
Over the course of many months, all eight suspected perpetrators – some of whom were seen in court here in March – were handcuffed
Some messages were sent to the victim’s mother, Gail Maddox Trotter (seen here) – frantically asking for help
The detective also testified that during their investigation, he and other investigators discovered that the victim was forced to perform oral sex on Green before being stripped naked, punched, spit on, kicked and dragged by his hair to a vehicle.
The attacks, he alleged, took place at two locations: first Pope’s home on McMillon Avenue, and the second was Lewis’s at a nearby apartment complex.
Afterwards, police said Harris, Pope and McDowell all left Lewis with Jackson in tow, with Pope reportedly admitting to police that he had been driving Harris’ Chevrolet Malibu.
Police said Jackson was told they were going to Dead Man’s Road to clean up trash from the suspect’s car before taking her home.
That was a ruse, investigators said — with Harris walking up behind Jackson and firing the fatal shot as the victim helped Pope and McDowell remove the trash.
All suspects are being held in the Jefferson County Jail without bond.