A Maryland man faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty in the 2017 death of his 6-year-old sister and two young cousins.
State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy’s office said the jury deliberated for about two hours in a Prince George’s County courthouse on Thursday before sentencing Antonio Shareek Williams of murder and three counts of first-degree child abuse.
Braveboy’s office said Williams’ sentencing is set for May 19.
Williams, 30, was accused of fatally stabbing his sister Nadira Withers and her cousins Ajayah DeCree, 6, and Ariana DeCree, 9. Investigators said he had confessed to the crimes shortly after he was arrested.
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Antonio Shareek Williams, now 30, was sentenced Thursday for the 2017 stabbing deaths of his little sister and two young cousins.
(Prince George’s County Police Department)
“I am happy that these three innocent lives have received the justice they deserve,” Kenneth Withers, the father of Nadira Withers, said after the verdict, according to the Associated Press.
The three girls were solely in Williams’ care the night they died while their mother worked a night shift nursing, according to the arrest reports. The DeCree sisters were visiting from New Jersey and were the daughters of the mother’s cousin.
Prosecutors argued that Williams was upset with the girls for making noise and running up and down the stairs in the house. At trial, they argued that he took a knife from the kitchen, went to the bedroom where the girls were, stabbed the three of them multiple times, and then put the knife away.
Their mother found the girls’ bodies the next morning as she was coming home from work. They were pronounced dead at the house.
Local news outlets reported that Williams’ 2-year-old brother was also at the home at the time, but was not injured.
Kenneth Withers and his daughter Nadira Withers pose for a photo before she was murdered in August 2017.
(Live for Nadira – GoFundMe)
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Prosecutors said Williams cleaned up the scene and the knife, but there was enough DNA evidence to link him to the crimes.
He was arrested hours after the bodies were discovered.
“They should be enjoying their lives, chasing their dreams, but they were killed by a family member,” Braveboy said of the girls.
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Jonathan Church, a prosecutor who helped bring the case to trial, said the process took a long time due to turnover within Braveboy’s office, a change in defense attorneys and pandemic-related delays, the AP reported.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
