Decatur teen sentenced to 10 years in case of pregnant woman's murder
Tarlan Mackey was in court to offer a plea of guilty in connection to the shooting of Janiah Thomas and her daughter on March 8, 2023. Court records show he was originally charged with nine counts — three of first-degree murder, three of intentional homicide of an unborn child, two of aggravated battery with a firearm and one of aggravated discharge of a firearm.
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Mackey reached a plea deal with prosecutors in February and on Wednesday, the deal was formalized in court. All nine of the original charges against him were dismissed in exchange for a plea of guilty to residential burglary, which is a Class 1 felony.
In a sworn statement, Decatur Police said Mackey, who was 17 at the time, was one of three people who went to the area of Woodford Street and Grand Avenue the night of March 8, 2023. The other two people were brothers Mattarion and Mattavius Anderson, and officers said the Andersons had gotten into a dispute over Snapchat with Thomas' boyfriend and his brother earlier that day. The boyfriend and his brother lived on Woodford Street.
When the Andersons and Mackey arrived on Woodford, Thomas was visiting with her four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son. She was 26 weeks pregnant with her third child.
Decatur Police said one of the people at the home saw the trio and suspected Mattarion Anderson was armed due to the way he was holding his hand. She warned the others inside the home and advised them not to go outside.
Four people, including Thomas' boyfriend and his brother, went outside anyway, Decatur Police said. A short time later, shots were fired and bullets went flying into the home.
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Thomas was shot while holding her daughter and trying to get her to the floor, a witness told Decatur Police. The soon-to-be mother of three lost her life and her unborn child died along with her. Her daughter was shot in the face and lost her right eye.
Two days later, Mackey was arrested in connection with the shooting. Four days after that, the Andersons were arrested in Champaign.
One week ago, Judge Thomas Griffith found Mattarion Anderson guilty in a bench trial of killing Thomas and her unborn child. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.
The case of his brother Mattavius is still in the pretrial phase, with a hearing scheduled for June 6.
Mackey is the second person to be convicted in connection to Thomas' death, but the first to be sentenced. Judge Griffith, also overseeing Mackey's case, accepted his guilty plea for residential burglary and then sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
WCIA has reached out to the Macon County State's Attorney's Office to learn more about the case and the evidence that led to Mackey's guilty plea for burglary. We have not heard back yet.
The two years Mackey has already served in custody will be deducted from his sentence, along with any time for good behavior in prison.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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