BOLINGBROOK, ILLINOIS: Jermaine Mandley, 48, a notorious Bolingbrook, Illinois, criminal who murdered his ex-girlfriend in front of her daughter has been sentenced to life in prison.

Mandley was accused of killing Maya Smith, 24, in cold blood in front of her two-year-old daughter in Illinois in January after she dumped him, according to Law and Crime.

He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday, November 6, following a jury trial in August.

How did Jermaine Mandley kill Maya Smith?

According to prosecutors, Mandley had an affair with Smith who dumped him after he assaulted her and locked her in a car trunk in June 2022.

He then stalked her with texts, pleading her to take him back. She agreed to meet him on January 7, but he ambushed her in an alley and shot her multiple times inside a car.

“Her life was cut short senselessly all because she told someone she didn’t want to have anything to do with them,” Smith’s great-aunt Bonnie Winfrey said, according to Shaw Local.

Maya Smith's daughter was in the back seat of the car when she was fatally shot

Officers found Smith dead inside the car with bullet wounds in the head and abdomen.

Her daughter was in the back seat, unhurt. Shell casings were on the front passenger side of the vehicle. Investigators also found Mandley’s DNA on the passenger interior door handle.

The surveillance video reportedly showed him getting out of the front passenger door of the vehicle and standing in the doorway, facing the inside of the vehicle with the door still open.

The video showed flashes of gunfire inside the vehicle. He then closed the vehicle’s door, ran away, returned to the vehicle, and ran again. He was heard saying, “Killed that b***h” and “She dead - call that b****h now."

How was Jermaine Mandley caught?

Mandley escaped the scene and contacted his wife the next day using a new Snapchat account. He told her to meet him at an Indiana casino. Instead, she recorded their phone call and told the police, who arrested him.

Mandley had a long criminal record, including serving 15 years in prison for reckless homicide. He killed a retired school teacher and a reverend in a drunk driving crash in 2001.

He also served three-and-a-half years in prison for possessing a firearm as a felon.

A jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of endangering the life of a child on August 17, 2023.

Jermaine Mandley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole

He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday, November 6.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow called Mandley “evil incarnate” and said he “ruthlessly fired at least seven shots at Maya Smith with her infant daughter just inches away."

He also said Mandley “has repeatedly demonstrated throughout his extensive criminal history an utter lack of respect for the sanctity of human life."