Mahogany Jackson texted she was kidnapped. Days later 8 black suspects were charged in her murder

Alabama mother Mahogany Jackson was found shot in the back of the head on 
Feb. 26 by the side of a road in a remote area in Birmingham, Alabama, 
hours after she texted her mother saying that she had been kidnapped and 
asking for help, according to the Birmingham Police Department (BPD).

Now six of the eight suspects charged in connection to the kidnapping, 
sexual assault and murder of the 20-year-old Jackson are set to appear in 
court Wednesday morning for a preliminary hearing.

“The facts of this case are deplorable and sickening. Saddest of all, they 
were made public by the suspects' decision to videotape portions of this 
horrific act,” said BPD Chief Scott Thurmond during a press conference on 
Feb. 28, announcing the arrest of several suspects. “We have to shield 
Mahogany’s family and friends by withholding specific facts surrounding 
the investigation. However, we have determined that Mahogany was a victim 
of sexual assault with murder and kidnapping.”

“This is undoubtedly one of the most heinous acts I've seen in my career. 
It's absolutely disgusting,” Thurmond added.

The suspects
Police announced on Feb. 28 that seven suspects were arrested and charged 
in connection to the kidnapping, rape, assault and murder of Jackson, a 
native of Jasper, Alabama, while an eighth suspect was arrested on March 
1.

Brandon Pope, 24, Francis Harris, 25, and Jeremiah McDowell, 18, were each 
charged with capital murder during a first-degree kidnapping and capital 
murder during first-degree sodomy and are being held without bond. 
According to ABC affiliate in Birmingham, WBMA, investigators said during 
a bond hearing on March 4 that Harris is believed to have fired the fatal 
shot.

https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/fad26e12-cc18-4abd-b634-757be7957a86/suspects-
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>From top (left to right): . Giovonnie Clapp, Blair Green , Francis Harris, 
(second row) Teja Lewis, Si'nya McCall, Jeremiah McDowell, Brandon Pope
Birmingham Police Department

During that bond hearing the five additional suspects were denied bond, 
WBMA reported.

Giovannie Clapp, 23, and Blair Green, 25, and Si'Niya McCall, 23, were 
charged with felony murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree 
sodomy, while Teja Lewis, 26, was charged with felony murder.

Lewis and Clapp also were charged with second-degree assault, while the 
eighth suspect, Ariana Lashay Robinson, 23, was charged with felony murder 
- kidnapping, according to police.

ABC News has reached out to the attorneys representing each of the 
suspects. Attorneys representing Clapp and Lewis declined to comment, but 
attorneys representing the sixother suspects did not immediately respond 
to ABC News' requests.

Thurmond said that the suspects in this case “were not strangers” and were 
all acquainted with each other. He also said that Jackson was acquainted 
with the suspects.

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Airana Robinson
Birmingham Police Department

Thurmond thanked the public for sharing information that helped lead to 
the arrests in this case.

“You answered the call,” he said. “This case highlights the strength and 
effectiveness of the partnership between the Birmingham Police Department 
in our community.”

A call for help
BPD spokesman Officer Truman Fitzgerald told ABC News in a phone interview 
on Monday that police began the investigation into this incident as a 
missing person’s case after they were notified before 11 a.m. local time 
on Sunday Feb. 25 about a text message that Jackson sent to her mother.

In the message, Jackson told her mother that she was being held hostage 
and shared the name of an individual who lives in the apartment where she 
was allegedly being held, as well as an address and asked her mother not 
to call her back, but urged her to reach out to the police, Fitzgerald 
said, adding that it was the last time anyone heard from Jackson.

“[Police] went to that apartment right away and began searching 
immediately. They searched the apartment where she was supposedly, they 
searched the complex. They spoke to witnesses,” Fitzgerald said, “but by 
then [Jackson] was not [there].”

According to Fitzgerald, BPD detectives learned during the investigation 
that the alleged kidnappers found out that Jackson used her phone after 
she texted her mother and threatened her to reveal her passcode so they 
could unlock her phone. Jackson could have presumably been moved to a 
different location before police arrived on the scene, Fitzgerald said.

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Mahogany Jackson
Birmingham Police Department

“One of [the suspects] told her if she gave her password, they would allow 
her to live,” Fitzgerald said.

According to police, a witness who is not involved in the incident found 
Jackson’s body at around 2:19 a.m. on the side of the road at 17th Street 
SW and Laurel Avenue.

Fitzgerald said that Jackson’s body was found “in a kind of isolated area 
near a residential neighborhood” about two and half miles away from the 
apartment that Jackson had indicated she was being held at in the text 
message to her mother.

Jackson’s family and community members held a candlelit vigil on Feb. 29 
in honor of her memory at the Serenity apartment complex – the community 
in the Powderly community in Birmingham where Jackson went missing, 
according to WBMA.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, whose office is 
investigating this case, told WBMA on March 4 that Jackson’s family, who 
attended the bond hearing for the suspects, is “shaken.”

“They're definitely shaken. It is one thing to hear a lot of -- what we 
call chitter chatter out there, but to be in a formal setting and hear 
what happened to a loved one like that could be very disheartening, 
obviously,” Carr said.

ABC News has reached out to Carr’s office for additional comment.

Asked if police expect to arrest any additional suspects, Fitzgerald told 
ABC News on Monday that based on the evidence detectives have obtained so 
far, “[investigators] do not see any more suspects being arrested.”

He added that while arrests have been made, the investigation is “ongoing” 
with detectives gathering evidence and “polishing up the case” ahead of a 
future trial.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mahogany-jackson-texted-kidnapped-days-8-
suspects-charged/story?id=108018706