KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — State prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the suspects in a McMinn County quadruple murder in September 2021, according to the Tenth Judicial District Attorney General Stephen Crump.

Two suspects, Curtis Smith of Etowah and Jazzmine Hall of Athens, are facing first-degree murder charges stemming from a quadruple fatal shooting at a home on County Road 60 in the Riceville community in September 2021. The victims, Trevon Hall, Skylar Hawn, Jesse Dupree, and Brandi Harris were killed in the home and a 10-month-old baby went missing.

At the time, the McMinn County sheriff said there had been some kind of custody dispute before the deadly shooting.

“It appears that there were initially six people present at the residence,” McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy said in September 2021. “When a male suspect and a female suspect arrived after 8 a.m. there was some kind of dispute that took place between the female suspect and the male victim over a 10-month-old whom they are the parents of. At some point, the dispute turned violent and the four victims were shot. One witness escaped and the other pretended to be injured and survived. The suspect then took the child and left the scene.“ 

The baby was later found safe the same evening as the fatal shooting.

Smith and Hall were later apprehended in Polk County in a multiagency effort that included the McMinn County Sheriff’s Office, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the 10th Drug Task Force and the US Marshals Service during a SWAT operation.