McMinn County mom sentenced for murders of 4 people after abducting her infant

(WTVC) From News Channel 9: A McMinn County woman was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for her role in a homicide that ended

(WTVC)

From News Channel 9: A McMinn County woman was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for her role in a homicide that ended with 4 people dead and a 10-month-old infant abducted and missing.

A judge sentenced Jazzmine Hall after she pleaded guilty to 12 counts connected to the 2021 murders in court Monday morning.

This came after victims’ family members shed tears and shared stories of their loved ones while they looked a killer in the eye.

On September 25th, 2021, authorities found 4 people, 1 man and 3 women, dead at a home on Highway 60 in Riceville. They also learned a 10-month-old, who was Hall’s child, was missing, and the father of the child was among the dead.

Another suspect in the murders, Curtis Smith, still awaits trial.

Sheriff Joe Guy told us at the time this was a custody dispute gone horribly wrong.

None of us truly remember a quadruple homicide like this, we’ve had some triples recently, but this is about the worst,’ Sheriff Guy told us.

Less than 12 hours after the bodies were discovered, Hall and Smith were both found and arrested in southern Polk County. The child was safe and placed with the Department of Children’s Services.

Hall’s trial was about to begin, and prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty. Her guilty plea means she will avoid that fate.

But she didn’t head off to prison before hearing from the victims’ families first.

One said “It’s still hard to believe that my firstborn is gone.”

Others said

We have to look at ashes, talk to the sky and release balloons on her birthday instead of seeing her smile and giggle in our faces.

I’m suffocating the memories of that day forever and the sounds drown me.

My kids definitely suffer. They still cry and want to know where they’re at.

A total of 6 people were in the home at the time of the murders.

Prosecutors say after Hall took her infant, she shot the baby’s father in the face.

One of the 2 survivors, Steven Lemke, said a few days after the murders that Hall and Smith were intent on killing everyone.

They started walking out the door to the truck to leave, and Jazzmine turned around and yelled at him and completely just said, ‘What are you doing? Don’t leave no one alive.’,” Lemke explained. “So I’m in the back of the camper on a bed and looking out the window kind of, I see Curtis just turn around, and next thing I know he’s stepping back into the camper, pretty much reshooting every victim twice.

Lemke survived with a bullet graze on his head.

He said at the time that ‘it’s probably going to replay for the rest of my life and I don’t want to accept it.’

We have a crew in McMinn County working to learn more and get reaction to Hall’s sentence.