Thread by @istandwithkia

The weekend of October 20th changed our lives forever.

Prior to, we were not getting Jurayah as often but we were still completely active and present in her life.

Friday night while Morris was coaching, I was home with our daughter. I randomly received a call from Danielle. Danielle is Morris’s cousin. We grew pretty close over the course of my marriage.

Danielle told me that Jurayah was crying nonstop and that she couldn’t get her to calm down. I told her to put Jurayah on the phone.

I reminded Jurayah that we are big girls and we do not cry. She gave me an “um uh” (yes ma’am) and I asked her to wipe her face and stop crying. She did.

*Here’s an old pic of our happy baby*

Danielle and I went on to talk a little while longer because I was confused on why and how she even got Jurayah.

She shared that she (Danielle, who is in Vicksburg) met with the bio mom who dropped J off with her. PG from Vicksburg is almost 20-30 minutes apart.

When she dropped off J, the bio mom did not have a car seat or a diaper bag to leave with Danielle. Naturally, I was ready to go pick her up.

But Danielle assured me she would be okay and that she would just give J some old clothes from her daughter to wear.

Unbeknownst to us, we later learned that Andrew (Morris’s brother) picked up J from Danielle that night and drove Baby J back to PG (with no car seat). He took her to Danielle’s mom house (Antionette).

Antionette gave Jurayah a bath in the kitchen sink (bc she felt Andrew had to be monitored).

The next morning, while Morris was in the town over and I was home, he received a call stating his mom was on her deathbed and that he needed to come to Vicksburg to basically say his goodbyes.

We connected with the family. We were all on our way to Vicksburg but we wanted Jurayah to go with us bc we had her a car seat and clean clothes.

*another throwback of J & her daddy*

I grabbed this cute outfit my mom got for her and we met at a gas station. We got Jurayah from Morris’s aunt and I jumped in the backseat to change her clothes and put her in her car seat.

We stayed at the hospital for 8 hours that day. While at the hospital, Jurayah wanted to be carried a lot. After so long, she climbed into my lap and she went straight to sleep as she always has.

After leaving the hospital, we stopped to get food and headed home. Both girls were in and out of sleep.

Once home, we put both girls to bed. Morris and I stayed up a little longer to talk about our day... like can you imagine waiting for your mom to die. I couldn’t. But I was trying to be strong for my husband.

That was our thing. I’m strong where and when he is weak and vice versa. We are a team.

Once we finished talking Morris took a shower while I continued to settle in. Morris got out and while I was getting ready to take my shower we both heard noises coming from Jurayah. We assumed she was talking in her sleep.

Morris volunteered to go check on her but I told him to go on to bed and that I would. Today was hard for us especially him, I just wanted him to rest. So I checked on her, she was fine.

*this is old but check out how we sometimes would find our big girl sleeping in her crib*

I showered. Got in bed. And went to straight to sleep.

Early in the morning about 5 am Morris woke me up saying he was thirsty. I told him I would grab him something from the kitchen.

While getting him something to drink, I stopped to check on Jurayah (remind you our girl loved her naps and was a busy sleeper) I went to adjust her I immediately knew something was wrong.

I called out to/ went to go get Morris (the nursery was literally a room over and you had to walk through her room to get to the kitchen). He came and that’s when we both realized she was not breathing.

The nurse in me knew immediately that there was no sign of life. I knew giving CPR to her would not bring her back. Morris called 911 but he was so hysterical that I took the phone from him to talk to the first responders.

We then called the bio mom. She arrived before help actually came despite us calling them first. When the ambulance and police did arrive they ruled that there were no signs of foul play.

Jurayah had no bruising. No swelling. No blood. Nothing.

We both called our families and they all traveled from near and far to be with us. That was the longest and one of the saddest days of my life.

While working on funeral arrangements, everyone in the family was still cordial and leaned on each other for support.

Things took another crazy turn until after the autopsies came back

Initially, the autopsy was inconclusive. They did not have a definite ruling as far as how she died. The report could not rule out asphyxiation (suffocation) or blunt force trauma.

Months went by. We are trying to adjust as best as we can but honestly it was tough.

As things were beginning to smooth itself out, the official autopsy report came back stating the manner of death was homicide/ blunt force trauma.

When I was interrogated a second time and learned of this. I immediately proclaimed our innocence in disbelief and told them I was willing to take a lie detector test. I had nothing to hide.

They declined my invitation of a test and after interviewing us things kind of died down again on the legal side but socially we were beginning to become outcasts... well more so me than my husband bc remember he is from this area.

The bio mom began to do interviews and some of Morris’s side of the family began to turn on us. We started being harassed and receiving death threats and comments in regards to our daughter.

At this point, we relocated to NOLA (we began to receive threats) and I had my baby boy, V. We were searching for peace... neither of us were able to fully grieve. We lived there almost a year before our lawyer called telling us that we had to turn ourselves in.

Witnesses had testified against us to the grand jury stating that they felt we had harmed our baby.

I called my family and friends and explained to them to brace themselves for what was to come. I told them specific instructions on how to care for our babies while we were away.

We traveled home to drop our kids off with my family and we then traveled to PG to turn ourselves in.

We both waited a full week without going before a judge

When we finally were able to go before the judge, we were both charged with capital murder and given a million bond each.

We posted bond and complied. We knew these allegations were false so we had no issue complying and allowing the process to take place. For almost 3 years I held my tongue as my name was dragged through the mud.

The week of January 29th was my trial and Morris’s was to follow the week after. During my trial, it was learned that the prosecution’s key expert witness testified to changing his initial reports.

He stated that he was approached by the prosecution to change the wording of his findings. He also stated that had the prosecution not withhold pertinent information his findings would have been different.

The original report spoke of Jurayah being “normal” on the surveillance which was false according to her mother who testified that since learning to walk, Jurayah did not want assistance.

Yet, the entire time of the video, Jurayah was seen holding her head and not once did she walk unassisted. A medical expert testified that she could have been holding her head bc she might have had a headache from a prior head injury we knew nothing about.

We also learned that every key witness (who happened to have been Morris’s family who all had the baby prior to us getting her) testified against me.

This was extremely hurtful to me especially Danielle. Danielle and I were extremely close. She and Morris were “favorite cousins”.

Danielle has texted me some time ago that she knew I didn’t do it and that she had lied to the police. THIS WAS PRESENTED IN COURT IN BLACK AND WHITE. She claimed to not have remembered sending me those messages.

She also claimed in her messages that the police “got in her head so bad”.

Her mom, Antionette, testified also stating that she had to wash Jurayah in the sink bc again, Andrew (Morris brother) was at her home and he needed monitoring bc he is mentally unstable.

Remember Andrew drove Jurayah from Vicksburg to PG with no car seat that same night.

The courts reviewed both of my interrogations in which the recount was almost identical. The ONLY discrepancy was that in one I stated that I called to Morris and the other I stated that I went to get Morris.

But in all, all details were alike.

I was found guilty within 30 minutes. The jury was given 3 years worth of circumstantial evidence including an 8 hour surveillance video proving that Jurayah was injuried prior to us getting her and unbeknownst to us.

No medical expert was able to clarify a specific timeline on when Jurayah’s fractures occurred but they all agreed that they were in the healing stages at the time of her death and could have been 2-8 days old.

Also, our baby was fair skinned. If we had did the things we are accused of, there would have been clear markings and bruisings the night she died... the body cannot heal once deceased.

One medical expert described that Jurayah could have been experiencing a lucid interval which is the lapse of time between a brain injury and death.

Also, it was testified in court by one of the expert witnesses that when Jurayah passed away she was not in distress.

The jury was provided all of this information and found me guilty in 30 minutes. I was sentenced to LIFE W/O THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE off circumstantial evidence.

So riddle me this:

Why weren’t the other individuals who had our baby ever investigated?

Why did the prosecution withhold information purposely?

Why is it that now my husband’s trial has been postponed?

And if we beat our baby, why were there no bruises and why were we allowed to walk around free?

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