Mahogany Jackson: Young Black Mother Kidnapped, Beaten and Killed in Birmingham
Mahogany Jackson of Birmingham, Alabama, contacted her family just after 8 a.m. on Sunday, February 25, 2024 with a harrowing message:
“I’ve been kidnapped. Send help. Don’t call,” the message from the 20-year-old woman read.
Her family leapt into action, reporting her missing, frantically trying to trace her last known steps.
The following morning, about 2 a.m., Jackson’s body was found with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Detectives say she was found at an illegal dumping site in Birmingham; one attorney described it as a “dead man road.”
As officers began to investigate the murder, they found evidence that Jackson had been abducted, tortured and forced to perform sexual acts with a gun to the back of her head. Some of the suspects even recorded these horrific acts, and the videos were posted on social media.
“The facts of this case are deplorable and sickening,” Former BPD Chief Scott Thurmond said at the time. “Saddest of all, they were made public by the suspects’ decision to videotape portions of this horrific act.”
Days later, authorities arrested seven suspects and then an eighth in the high-profile case. They were all subsequently charged with murder. After the initial hearings, the prosecutor formed a grand jury, which indicted the suspects. The Jefferson County Deputy District attorney read their formal indictments and announced that the state will be seeking the death penalty for all eight suspects.
In court, a detective testified that on the videos, the suspects can be heard threatening Jackson with death.
The ordeal began when Jackson fell in with some new associates, according to media reports.
Birmingham Police Homicide Detective Mark Green was the state’s only witness who described what he saw in five videos recorded by suspects.
The 20-year-old mother initially visited the house of one of the suspects under the pretense that she would be hanging out with a group of friends.
According to prosecutors, a social media video soon shows her outside a home, in the nude with another suspect on top of her, brutally beating her while another is seen kicking her.
Soon after, a voice can be heard saying, “Put her in the trunk.”
Prosecutors say that’s when she was most likely transported to a second location, an apartment that two of the suspects shared. Inside that apartment, more sinister and violent acts were shown on video, including a naked Jackson being handcuff, slapped, spat upon and beaten with a pistol.
As the horrific details of the case were described in court, relatives of the victim, including Jackson’s mother, became audibly emotional.
Mahogany Jackson’s mother, Gail Shearer, told local media that she won’t rest until the suspects are brought to justice.
“You contributed to what ended up being my child being gone. She is gone, and she’s never coming back. That is so hard for me. It is so hard,” Shearer told TV station WBRC.
Shearer was quoted saying that her granddaughter will now have to learn about her own mother.
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office obtained arrest warrants for the following suspects:
Giovonnie Clapp: B/F, 23, of Birmingham, Alabama. Felony murder/kidnapping 1st, sodomy 1st; Assault 2nd with injury.
Blair Green, B/M, 25, of Birmingham, Alabama. Felony murder/kidnapping 1st/sodomy 1st.
Teja Lewis: B/F, 25, of Birmingham, Alabama. Felony murder; Assault 2nd with injury/weapon.
Francis Harris, B/M, 25, of Birmingham, Alabama. Capital Murder/sodomy 1st; Capital murder/kidnapping 1st.
Si’nya McCall, B/F, 23, of Bessemer, Alabama. Felony murder/kidnapping 1st/sodomy 1st.
Jeremiah McDowell, B/M, 18, of Bessemer, Alabama. Capital murder/sodomy 1s; Capital murder/kidnapping 1st.
Brandon Pope, B/M, 24, of Birmingham, Alabama. Capital murder/kidnapping 1st; Capital murder/sodomy1st.
Airana Robinson, (23), B/F, of Hueytown, Alabama. Felony Murder/kidnapping.
“When I have to play videos of my daughter for my granddaughter just so she can see her mom alive. That’s heartbreaking,” Shearer told WBRC. “My granddaughter is going to grow up and never see her mom again. I’m never going to see my child again. It’s not right.”
RELATED ARTICLES
