A Morgan County jury convicted Jaclyn Skuce on three counts of capital murder, and a judge sentenced the 43-year-old Madison, Alabama, woman to life in prison without the possibility of parole for arranging the killing of Anthony Larry Sheppard, the father of her child, to keep him from gaining custody or expanded visitation rights.
Skuce will spend the rest of her life in the Alabama Department of Corrections. The man she hired to pull the trigger, Logan Delp of Hartselle, was convicted of capital murder in October 2025. Four other defendants in all have been charged in connection with Sheppard's death; one has pleaded guilty, and two more await trial.
The case lays bare a grim reality: a father who went to court to see his own child was ambushed and killed for it. And the person who ordered his death was the mother of that child.
On July 24, 2020, Sheppard failed to show up for a scheduled custody hearing. That absence prompted the Hartselle Police Department to dispatch officers to his residence for a welfare check, the New York Post reported.
What officers found told the story before any investigation began. The storm door was shattered. The main door stood ajar. Inside, they discovered Sheppard's body. He had been shot multiple times.
The scene pointed to a targeted killing, not a burglary gone wrong. Investigators soon traced the plot back to Skuce, who prosecutors said used social media to recruit a hitman and allegedly offered $30,000 for the job.
The Hartselle Enquirer reported that prosecutors presented evidence showing Skuce turned to social media to find someone willing to carry out the murder. The man who answered was Logan Delp, a Hartselle resident. The alleged payment, $30,000, was the price Skuce put on the life of her child's father.
The motive, as the Morgan County District Attorney's Office stated, was custody. Skuce wanted to prevent Sheppard from gaining custody or further visitation with their child. She chose to resolve a family court matter with a contract killing.
Families across the country endure bitter custody fights every day. They hire lawyers, attend hearings, and submit to the judgment of courts. Skuce, according to prosecutors, bypassed all of that. She hired a gunman instead. The case stands as one of the more disturbing examples of violence erupting from custody disputes, a pattern that continues to shock communities nationwide.
The jury found Skuce guilty on all three counts of capital murder. Each count reflected a different legal theory: murder for hire, murder of a witness, and murder committed by shooting into an occupied dwelling. The breadth of the charges underscored the deliberate, premeditated nature of the crime.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Garrick Vickery praised the jury's work after the verdict. Fox News reported his remarks following the conviction:
"There are never any winners in a case like this. This jury was incredibly thorough and took their time to make sure they made the right decision, both for Mr. Sheppard and for the defendant."
Vickery also spoke plainly about what Skuce had done to Sheppard's family:
"We are glad that they convicted her for the choice she made to take Mr. Sheppard away from his family."
That word, "choice", matters. Vickery framed the killing not as a crime of passion or a moment of rage, but as a deliberate decision. Skuce chose to have a man killed. A jury held her accountable for that choice.
Skuce did not act alone. Five people in total have faced capital murder charges in Sheppard's death. Delp, the triggerman, was convicted in October 2025. Another defendant has already pleaded guilty. Two more are awaiting trial. The identities of the remaining defendants have not been disclosed in available reporting.
The scope of the conspiracy, five people charged, raises its own questions. How does a mother recruit not one but multiple people into a murder plot? What roles did the other defendants play? Those answers may emerge as the remaining cases move forward. History is full of cases where prosecutors pursued the most severe penalties to match the severity of the crime, and the capital murder charges here signal Morgan County intends to do the same.
For now, the two principal figures, the woman who ordered the killing and the man who carried it out, are both convicted and facing life behind bars.
Anthony Larry Sheppard was doing what the legal system asks fathers to do. He showed up. He filed for custody. He appeared in court. He followed the process. And on the day of a scheduled hearing, the very mechanism the state provides to resolve these disputes peacefully, he was found dead in his own home.
The cruelty of the timing deserves attention. Sheppard's failure to appear in court was what triggered the welfare check. He missed the hearing because he was already dead. The system designed to protect his parental rights could not protect his life.
Cases like this remind us that the justice system, for all its flaws, exists precisely because the alternative is lawlessness. When someone decides that a court ruling they don't like is worth killing over, the entire framework of civil society is under assault. The violent disregard for another person's life in pursuit of a personal outcome, whether in a brutal street killing or a calculated murder-for-hire, demands the full weight of the law in response.
It took nearly five years from Sheppard's death in July 2020 to Skuce's sentencing. That is a long time for a grieving family to wait. But the Morgan County District Attorney's Office secured convictions against both Skuce and Delp, and the remaining defendants still face trial.
The sentence, life without parole, means Skuce will never leave prison. Alabama law provides no path out for her. That is the consequence the jury delivered, and it is the consequence the facts demanded.
Domestic violence, custody manipulation, and family court abuse are real problems that deserve serious attention. But hiring a hitman to execute a father who wanted to see his child is not a custody dispute. It is a contract killing. And the law treated it as one.
Some cases involving women who killed over personal grievances become cultural flashpoints, debated for decades. This one should not be complicated. A man tried to be a father. A woman paid to have him killed for it. The jury got it right.
Anthony Larry Sheppard deserved his day in court. He never got it. At least his family finally got theirs.
