Prosecutors say digital exchanges and ballistics link a 16-year-old and his 15-year-old girlfriend to five family killings in East St. Louis.
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Prosecutors pursuing charges in the killings of five East St. Louis family members have described a case built in part on social media messages, a reported stolen gun and evidence recovered across several crime scenes, while a defense lawyer for 16-year-old Ja’ymier Davis has challenged the state’s account.
The evidence previewed at Davis’ July 15 detention hearing gave the clearest public view of how prosecutors intend to connect the two teenagers to the shootings. Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Lewis told the court that investigators had screenshots of messages discussing violence against the 15-year-old girl’s family. He read short portions of exchanges that prosecutors attributed to the girl and Davis, including a message referring to killing her family and a question about whether Davis would participate. Prosecutors said he answered yes. Those statements remain allegations from the state’s presentation and have not been weighed by a trial jury.
The same hearing brought a defense response that sharply disputed the prosecution’s narrative. Public Defender Patrick Sullivan presented no witnesses or evidence at that stage but said the defense “vehemently disagreed” with the facts laid out by prosecutors. He characterized Davis as someone who had been targeted rather than someone hunting others. Associate Judge Sara Rice nevertheless ordered Davis held pending further court action and referred the case to a grand jury, according to Spectrum News. A detention ruling addresses custody before trial; it does not decide whether Davis committed the charged crimes.
Davis is charged as an adult with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking, one count of dismembering a human body and one count of unlawful use of a stolen firearm. Illinois State Police announced the 12 counts on July 14 after investigators presented the case to St. Clair County State’s Attorney James Gomric. A 15-year-old girl arrested with Davis faces a juvenile delinquency petition that includes first-degree murder allegations. Prosecutors said they intended to ask that her case be transferred to adult criminal court.
The firearm is one of the most important physical links described publicly so far. Prosecutors said shell casings from the shootings were traced to a gun that a family member reported stolen on July 7. They also said Davis told investigators that the girl had given him the weapon. Relatives told KSDK that the gun belonged to the girl’s mother and had been kept in a lockbox before it was taken. Those accounts help explain why the stolen-firearm charge appears alongside the homicide counts, though the complete forensic record has not been released publicly and the defense has not had a trial opportunity to challenge the evidence.
The case began as a discovery of human remains rather than as a single reported shooting scene. On July 12, East St. Louis police asked Illinois State Police for assistance after remains were found at the Samuel Gompers Homes. The victim was identified as 49-year-old Cherie L. May. Investigators then identified four more people who had been fatally shot at other locations: Shania W. Thompson, 25; Devin May, 24; Quentin L. Thompson, 21; and Patricia A. May, 74. Two additional relatives of the 15-year-old suspect had been shot and taken to hospitals, state police said.
That sequence matters to the prosecution because the violence appears to have stretched across more than one day and more than one place. Court reporting says Cherie May was likely killed several days before most of the other shootings. Spectrum News reported that charging documents place one shooting between July 5 and July 7, while police described most of the violence as occurring over the weekend. Authorities have referred to the case as a targeted mass shooting, but the available public record describes a chain of events spread through East St. Louis rather than a single attack at one location.
Relatives say a conflict over the teenage couple’s relationship preceded the killings. Lamarion Smiley, whose wife survived being shot, told KSDK that the girl had run away with Davis several times and that family members had brought her home. He said he believed the teenagers wanted to eliminate relatives who objected to their relationship. Marcus May, the girl’s father, separately told local media that his daughter was angry with family members and had plotted the attacks with Davis. Court documents cited by the AP did not state a motive, making those family accounts important but still distinct from an official finding.
Prosecutors have also charged Davis with dismembering a human body in connection with the death of Patricia May, the 74-year-old grandmother of the girl. Charging accounts say Patricia May’s right thumb was cut off after she was killed. Some local reports said prosecutors linked that act to an effort to access her phone, but authorities’ publicly available July 14 release did not lay out the full purpose or evidence behind the allegation. The charge is therefore best understood as a specific accusation in the case, not as a proven reconstruction of what happened or why.
The victims were members of several generations of the same family. Patricia May was the oldest. Cherie May was 49, and the other three people killed were in their 20s. Marcus May told the AP that the dead included his mother, sister, nephew and two stepchildren. Police said every person shot was related to the 15-year-old suspect. Two relatives survived. Public reporting in the immediate aftermath focused heavily on the alleged motive and crime scenes, but the family’s losses are also a central fact of the case: five deaths and two woundings within one extended family.
The arrests followed an intensive investigation that expanded quickly after Cherie May’s remains were found. Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said troopers stopped a vehicle and arrested the teens in a state park. The state police Public Safety Enforcement Group worked with East St. Louis police, and officials said the shootings did not represent an ongoing threat to the broader community after the arrests. The case then moved into two legal tracks because of the suspects’ ages: Davis entered adult criminal court, while the girl initially remained under juvenile jurisdiction pending the prosecutor’s transfer request.
That split will shape what the public can learn next. Davis’ adult case generated an open detention hearing at which prosecutors outlined evidence and his lawyer answered the state’s theory. Proceedings involving the 15-year-old are more restricted, and state police did not publicly name her. A transfer into adult court would require a separate judicial process. Until that is resolved, details about her defense, the exact scope of the juvenile petition and the schedule of proceedings may remain less accessible than information in Davis’ case.
The prosecution’s early presentation is substantial enough to explain the charges, but it remains only one side of an unresolved case. Digital messages must be authenticated and interpreted, firearm evidence must be admitted and tested, and witness accounts can be challenged. The defense has already disputed the state’s portrayal of Davis, while no public trial record yet resolves the alleged motive. Illinois State Police explicitly noted in announcing the charges that an accusation is not evidence and that Davis is presumed innocent unless proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
As of Aug. 22, major news reports did not identify a newer authoritative development that materially changed the July posture of the cases. Davis had been ordered held pending further proceedings, and prosecutors had announced plans to seek adult prosecution of the 15-year-old. No final ruling on that transfer or trial outcome was established in the reviewed sources. The criminal allegations against both teenagers remain unproven.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 22, 2026.