Left inset: Mattavius Anderson (Macon County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Ja'Niah Thomas and her daughter (GoFundMe). Background: The 1300 block of North Woodford Street in Macon County, Ill., where Ja'Niah Thomas and her 4-year-old daughter were both shot in 2023 (WCIA/YouTube).
An Illinois man has accepted a plea deal that will allow him to avoid a murder conviction and decades in prison for a shooting he was accused of committing with his brother, which left a pregnant woman and her unborn child dead, and her 4-year-old daughter without an eye.
The shooting allegedly stemmed from a dispute over Snapchat.
"She was an innocent bystander, sitting peacefully on the couch when she was struck by stray bullets," a GoFundMe description says about victim Ja'Niah Thomas. The 20-year-old was 26 weeks pregnant when Mattavius Anderson, who was 18 at the time of the 2023 shooting, allegedly opened fire on a home Thomas was in.
"At the time of her demise, her precious four-year old daughter was shot in the eye," the GoFundMe says.
Anderson, now 21, was set to go on trial on Tuesday before he accepted a plea deal that saw all nine counts against him, including murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, dismissed, according to local CBS affiliate WCIA. He was instead charged and convicted of a single count of residential burglary.
Online court records show that Anderson was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with credit given for time served. He was scheduled for a bench trial after waiving a jury in September. Anderson's brother, Mattarion Anderson, chose to go the same route and was found guilty by Judge Thomas Griffith in May of murder and sentenced to 40 years behind bars.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Prosecutors have said that Thomas was at her boyfriend's home in the 1300 block of North Woodford Street in Macon County with her two children, ages 4 and 2, when the Andersons and another individual, Tarlan Mackey, went to the residence and opened fire following a Snapchat dispute with someone who was also inside the home.
Thomas' boyfriend and his brother went outside to confront the Andersons, whom they knew, when bullets started flying, according to prosecutors.
Thomas picked up her 4-year-old daughter and immediately dropped to the floor, but they were both struck by gunfire, WCIA reports. The child was shot in the face and lost her right eye. Thomas suffered fatal injuries. Her 2-year-old son was not hurt.
After the shooting, the brother of Thomas' boyfriend allegedly received a text message from one of the Andersons' relatives in which he "apologized for what his brothers did," according to WCIA.
Thomas was described in an obituary as a forklift operator and Decatur native who "loved to sing, laugh, dance, and spend time with her children and family." Her unborn child, Ja'Nylah Brielle Thomas, died with her.
"[Thomas] didn't take pride in anything more than being a mother," a cousin told WCIA.
The third individual who was allegedly involved in the shooting, Mackey, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a residential burglary charge.
