In the spring of 2014, the life of 27-year-old Sharday Lactrice Ann Ware, a Black female, was tragically cut short in her Birmingham, Alabama home. On Friday, April 25th, she was found deceased from gunshot wounds inside her residence in the 1300 block of 57th Place in the Ensley neighborhood. Another individual, 36-year-old Dekovan Harris, was also found deceased at the scene. The grim discovery was made by Ware's own 7-year-old daughter.
Sharday Ware was a graduate of Woodlawn High School and had attended Lawson State Community College. She was a mother, survived by her young daughter.
The Birmingham Police Department swiftly launched a double homicide investigation. Their efforts led to the identification of two suspects. The first, 20-year-old Dewayne Barnes, was taken into custody and charged with two counts of capital murder. Shortly after, a second suspect, 26-year-old Jermaine Tolbert, also known as 'Lil Jay,' was arrested and faced the same charges of two counts of capital murder. Both men were held in the Jefferson County Jail without bond. The investigation suggested that the motive for the killings was retribution, with the informant indicating that Harris was the intended target in retaliation for a prior murder, and that Barnes and Tolbert had been hired to carry out the act.
In the years that followed, the cases against the two men proceeded through the legal system. In 2016, Jermaine Tolbert went to trial and was ultimately acquitted of all charges related to the double homicide. The final outcome of the capital murder charges against the other suspect, Dewayne Barnes, is not detailed in the available information. The violent deaths of Sharday Ware and Dekovan Harris were part of the 63 homicides recorded in Birmingham in 2014.
