A Baldwin County, Alabama jury found Jared Smith-Bracy guilty of capital murder on September 24, 2026, in the February 2023 killings of three family members and a family friend at his grandparents' home in the Lake Forest area of Daphne.
Prosecutors say Smith-Bracy killed his brother, 27-year-old Jeremy Smith; his grandparents, 72-year-old Barbara Smith and 80-year-old Lenard Smith; and family friend 71-year-old Sheila Glover. According to prosecutors, Smith-Bracy told Daphne police in an interview immediately after the killings that he shot and struck the victims with a pickax; forensic evidence indicated the pickax struck the four victims a total of 38 times.
The trial and defense
The trial included testimony from investigators and forensic evidence presented over roughly a week before the jury reached its verdict. Smith-Bracy's defense argued he suffered from undiagnosed, untreated schizophrenia at the time of the killings and questioned his mental capacity to understand his actions. The jury nonetheless found him guilty of capital murder of two or more people.
What happens next
Prosecutors removed the death penalty as a sentencing option in the case, so Smith-Bracy faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. No sentencing date has been announced.
