Courtney Lynn Smith

Courtney Lynn Smith was a 37-year-old woman from Springfield, Illinois. A graduate of Pleasant Plains High School, she was a mother to a son and a daughter whose life was tragically taken in the spring of 2021.

On the morning of April 23, 2021, just before noon, neighbors near Courtney’s home in the 200 block of North Lincoln Avenue heard gunshots. They saw Courtney and a man together in the front yard of the residence. A neighbor who called 911 at 11:42 a.m. later testified that he witnessed the man holding a handgun over Courtney and then shooting her in the head.

When Springfield police officers arrived, they found Jahsen L. Thomas, Courtney's 43-year-old live-in boyfriend, on the ground holding her body with a handgun lying nearby. Thomas refused to comply with officers' orders, leading to a stand-off. Police eventually used nonlethal bean bag rounds to subdue him and take him into custody at the scene. Courtney Lynn Smith was pronounced dead at her home. An autopsy later confirmed that she had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Jahsen Thomas was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, as well as aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated discharge of a firearm, and possession of a firearm without a valid card. At the time of his arrest, Thomas had a pending misdemeanor battery charge in Sangamon County and a criminal history in Missouri. He was held in the Sangamon County Jail on a $2 million bond to await trial.

In August 2025, a Sangamon County jury found Jahsen Thomas guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm for Courtney's death. Three months later, in November 2025, Associate Judge Rudolph Braud sentenced Thomas to a total of 70 years in prison. The sentence consisted of 30 years for the murder charge with a 25-year enhancement for using a firearm, to be served consecutively with a 15-year sentence for aggravated battery with a firearm.