A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted two men in the shooting death of a well-known Birmingham business owner.

The grand jury issued capital murder indictments against Sebastian Ross, 24, and alleged triggerman Jaquies Hoffman, 21. The indictments were handed down March 8 and made public Friday.

Both men are charged in the killing of 44-year-old Snir Lalum, an Israeli citizen affectionately known by his friends in the U.S. as Sonny. Lalum was killed Aug. 24, 2023, at the Insta-Movers warehouse.

Ross is out of jail on bond and electronic monitoring. Hoffman remains held without bond.

Lalum left behind a wife and young son.

Testimony in a previous hearing showed a group of Lulum’s employees were at the nearby Circle K before going to the warehouse, which is on Walter Davis Drive in south Birmingham.

Ross approached one of the young Hispanic workers while they were in line to make a purchase.

Video from the store showed the worker taking Ross’s cell phone and entering his number into the phone because Ross was reportedly looking for work.

The worker told Ross he would have to talk to the boss – Lalum – about getting a job.

Birmingham homicide Det. James Glasgow testified that Ross and Hoffman then followed the Insta-Movers workers to the warehouse. Ross was seen on surveillance video first talking to the workers and then to Lalum when he arrived at work.

Glasgow said Ross could be heard saying something to Lalum in Spanish, but that the phrase he said made no sense. Lalum is Israeli, not Hispanic.

The detective then Ross, who is from Hoover, was speaking with a Spanish accent when he talked with Lalum at length, apparently describing construction work he could do at Lalum’s house.

Ross told Lalum he would work for cheap but wanted 50 percent up front. He then lowered that to 10 percent.

Glasgow acknowledged that Ross twice entered the warehouse, at least one of those times with Lalum’s permission, but was eventually told to leave, that “you’re not needed here.”

Ross got into a Nissan Frontier, which had been reported stolen from a Hoover apartment complex earlier in the night. The suspect left the parking lot but came back a short time later “at a high rate of speed.”

At that point, video showed, Hoffman got out of the SUV carrying a gun and went into the warehouse.

He reportedly told Ross he had to use the bathroom.

A gunshot was heard, and then Hoffman exited, yelling to Ross, “I had to pop him.”

The pair fled the scene.

Police found Lalum suffering from a gunshot wound inside a warehouse bay. They attempted life-saving measures until Birmingham firefighters arrived to take him to UAB Hospital.

Lalum was pronounced dead at the hospital at 5:50 a.m.

Ross’s public defender, Sammie Shaw, previously contended his client was there seeking work, and there was no evidence a robbery was planned or took place.

“Simply because he was there when the business owner was killed does not make him guilty,’’ Shaw said.