Enhanced charges for 5 suspects in Mahogany Jackson murder, kidnapping

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Court records show 20-year-old Mahogany Jackson was kidnapped and brutally murdered, with the suspects participating in and recording the attacks for more than 24 hours. Now, all eight suspects in the case face capital murder charges.

Mahogany Jackson’s mother, Gail Shearer, says they deserve this and she will be there every step of the way to ensure justice is served for her daughter.

“You contributed to what ended up being the disappearance of my child. She’s gone and she’ll never come back. It’s so hard for me. It’s so difficult,” Shearer says.

Shearer is still fighting, 8 months later, knowing there is nothing she can do to save her baby.

“I am sad thinking of how much life she still had ahead of her. There’s nothing I can do about it,” Shearer says. “I used to tell my kids all the time, ‘whatever your problem is, come see me and I’ll help you.’ I can’t solve this problem. There is nothing I can do to fix what happened to my daughter.

Mahogany reached out to his family, calling them during the abuse. His family struggled because they couldn’t help him. But Shearer says she’s worried about Mahogany’s 4-year-old daughter Nadia.

“When I try to tell him, ‘You know, your mother is an angel,’ she says, ‘no. You told me she was sleeping. My mother is sleeping,” Shearer said.

But she knows that one day she will have to explain to him what really happened.

“When I have to show videos of my daughter to my granddaughter just so she can see her mother alive. It’s heartbreaking. My granddaughter will grow up and never see her mother again. I will never see my child again. It’s not right,” says Shearer.

Jefferson County Prosecutor Danny Carr says the road to justice will be long.

“We need to determine a timeline, trial dates, whether they will be tried together, whether they will be tried separately. There are also laws that require it,” says Carr.

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