Grand Turk Mother Found Guilty by Judge in Murder of 9 Year old Daughter

Deandrea Hamilton & Wilkie Arthur

#TurksandCaicos, August 5, 2023 – She is no longer sporting a short cropped hair style.  Nor was she letting anyone see her face directly.  Dreadlocks have grown since she was arrested and remanded after the 2020 murder of her daughter and Najaj Karioka, in a courtroom on Thursday August 3 was unemotional and with her head hung down as the judge read for two hours, the evidence as presented in the trial.

In the end, it was a verdict of GUILTY carefully handed down for KARIOKA in the case where her 9-year-old daughter was murdered on May 20, 2020 when shot in the head; it seems multiple times.

Wilkie Arthur, court correspondent was present Thursday morning for the anticipated verdict.

It is a case that deeply grieved the country which was already gripped in the throes of a deadly pandemic; loved ones and residents struggled to understand the murder of a child by her own mother.

Evidence presented in the judge only trial strongly pointed to means and opportunity, though motive remains a frustrating mystery.

No weapon was found but in reading his summation for well over an hour, Judge David Baptiste demonstrated it was clear to him there was time for the accused to ditch the smoking gun and clean herself up before dialing 911.

Najaj Karioka, did not defend herself on the stand, but through her attorney Oliver Smith, KC had argued that someone entered her apartment through its door which was unable to lock and killed the child; Karioka claims to have slept through the brutal slaying.

Senior Prosecutors, Mickia Mills and Tamika Grant of the Office of the DPP were able to disprove that statement with the landlord’s testimony which revealed the doors of the unit were newly fixed before rental to Karioka, as a tenant.

Evidence against the defendant was well mounted and considered; still you can expect more details in a subsequent news report.

For many, observing the case with heartbreak and still struggling to comprehend what led to the killing three years and three months ago of the child, the GUILTY verdict firmly delivered in the Grand Turk Supreme Court for 45-year-old Najaj Karioka, was justice serve and much needed closure.