Murder of Nikki Whitehead

Jarmecca Yvonne "Nikki" Whitehead (April 18, 1975 – January 13, 2010) was a 34-year-old African-American mother of 16-year-old identical twins named Jasmiyah Kaneesha Whitehead and Tasmiyah Janeesha Whitehead (born on November 27, 1993). On the afternoon of January 13, 2010, she was found murdered in the bathroom of her boyfriend's Conyers, Georgia, home in the Bridle Ridge Walk subdivision. She had been beaten with a vase and stabbed repeatedly. Her daughters, Jasmiyah ("Jas") and Tasmiyah ("Tas"), were arrested five months after the slaying on May 21, 2010, for their mother's murder. Both initially pleaded not guilty. In a plea agreement, each twin pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter in 2014. They were sentenced to serve 30 years in prison.

History

In 2000, 25-year-old Nikki met 55-year-old truck driver Robert Head. It was not long before she and the girls moved in with Robert in the affluent suburb of Conyers, Georgia.[1]

Tasmiyah and Jasmiyah were both honor roll students and Girl Scouts.[2] The girls were initially raised by their great-grandmother, Della Frazier. Frazier said that Whitehead had fallen in with a bad crowd and was a sporadic and random presence in her children's lives. In 2007, when the twins were 13, Whitehead requested custody of them. Whitehead and the twins clashed. Frazier said that the twins saw their mother's attempts to control them as hypocritical. The conflicts escalated to physical fights and resulted in counseling and juvenile court appearances. Frazier was given custody again, only to have Whitehead regain custody on January 5, 2010. The girls protested the decision, but the Court ordered a two-week trial. Whitehead was murdered on January 13, 2010.[3] The twins said that they discovered their mother dead. The medical examiner called the murder a crime of passion and not likely to have been performed by a stranger. Whitehead's boyfriends were cleared after DNA testing. Evidence, including bite marks attributed to wounds inflicted by their mother during the fight, implicated the twins in the murder, and they were charged in May 2010.[4] Both initially pleaded not guilty.

Convictions

In January 2014, Tasmiyah pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.[5] On February 7, 2014, one month after her twin, Jasmiyah also pleaded guilty and is serving the same sentence.[6] The twins are incarcerated at separate prisons within the Georgia Department of Corrections. Tasmiyah is serving her sentence in Pulaski State Prison and Jasmiyah is serving her sentence in Arrendale State Prison. They will be eligible for parole in 2017.[3]

As of the year 2015, Arrendale State Prison hosted its first ever charter high school graduation and Jasmiyah had received her high school diploma. She was also the class valedictorian.[7]

Media depictions

The murder of Jarmecca (Nikki) has been featured in a few true crime documentaries and true crime television/media shows. They are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Davis, Mark (June 13, 2010). "Mothers slaying haunts loved ones". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  2. ↑ Ma, Kai (August 26, 2011). "6. The Whitehead Sisters". Time. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Queen, Alice (December 23, 2014). "Great-grandmother hopes twins who killed their mother will one day lead productive lives". The Rockdale Citizen. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Whitehead sister pleads guilty". The Covington News. January 9, 2014. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Garner, Marcus K. (January 9, 2014). "Guilty plea from Rockdale twin accused in mother's death". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  6. ↑ "2nd Whitehead twin pleads guilty to manslaughter". Rockdale News. February 7, 2014. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ Arrendale Prison hosts first ever charter high school graduation, Now Habbersham, July 23, 2015
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