Jury finds 14-year-old Fort Worth girl guilty of killing her best friend
A jury deliberated for a little more than hour Thursday before finding a 14-year-old girl guilty of murdering her best friend.
Nylah Lightfoot, 14, died on May 29 after being taken to John Peter Smith Hospital with stab wounds to her neck and chest after a fight at the Sycamore Center Villas apartment complex in south Fort Worth.
The 14-year-old found guilty could get anywhere from probation to 40 years in prison, with the possibility of transfer to an adult prison at age 19, according to prosecutors. She was found not guilty on aggravated assault charges.
Sentencing is scheduled for Friday.
Before deliberations began Thursday, defense attorney Frank Adler argued that the jury must look at the intentions of the accused in order to be fair about its verdict.
“Did she intend to cause serious bodily injury?” Adler asked. “She wanted the victim to go home.”
But Jim Hudson and Lloyd Welchel, the Tarrant County prosecutors who argued the state’s case, said the accused wanted to hurt her friend, that she wanted to thrust half the length of the knife that she held through her neck and into her chest.
“The case was graphic, disturbing and unsettling,” Hudson said during his closing statement. “Because of the decisions she made, a family now lives without a daughter. We ask that you send a message to her that these acts have consequences.”
Hudson said the accused in this case had control of the situation and had every opportunity to end “this train wreck” before it reached its deadly destination.
“There is no arguing what her intent was,” Hudson said. “When she came outside with the knife she was still in control. But not even her friend could stop her. She was only following through with what she had threatened twice.”
The aggravated assault charge stems from the teen allegedly swinging the kitchen knife at one of her other friends who tried to stop Lightfoot’s killing, according to the girl’s testimony. The friend grabbed the arm of the alleged assailant who continued to swing the knife around until the friend got scared and let go of her arm, the girl said.
Lightfoot and the girl accused of stabbing her, who is not being identified because she is a minor, started arguing that day and early into the next morning. Witnesses gave conflicting testimony about how the events of the day unfolded, but not about their conclusion.
The accused admitted during her testimony that she killed Lightfoot, the girl she called “the best friend anyone could ever have.”
The accused also said killing her best friend it was something that she would forever regret.
“She was like a sister to me,” she testified.
This story was originally published February 14, 2019 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Jury finds 14-year-old Fort Worth girl guilty of killing her best friend."
