A Morgan County jury on May 8, 2026, convicted Jaclyn Skuce on all three counts of capital murder for arranging the killing of Anthony Shepard, the father of her child [1]. The conviction followed an earlier prosecution of Logan Delp, who was tried and convicted as the triggerman in the same killing [1]. The case against Skuce centered on her role in hiring Delp to carry out the murder, closing what prosecutors framed as a two-defendant conspiracy rooted in a custody dispute [1].
Shepard was killed on July 24, 2020 [1]. The state's theory at trial was that Skuce contracted with Delp to commit the killing, making her criminally liable under Alabama's capital murder statute on multiple theories of culpability [1]. The three-count structure of the indictment allowed the jury to consider the offense under distinct legal theories, all of which returned guilty verdicts [1].
The trial court sentenced Skuce to life without the possibility of parole on the same day the verdict was returned, May 8, 2026 [1]. Under Alabama law, a capital murder conviction carries either death or life without parole, and the sentence here foreclosed any future release [1].
No appellate filings were reported in the immediate wake of the verdict. With both Delp and Skuce now convicted, the prosecution of the Shepard killing is, at the trial-court level, complete [1].