Left: Naikishia Williams (Palm Beach County Jail). Right: Nia Williams (Bell & Clark Funeral Home).
In Florida, prosecutors have announced their decision to pursue the death penalty for a mother accused of killing her 7-year-old daughter by stomping her to death because she spilled cereal.
Naikishia Williams, 32, faces charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the case of Nia Williams, who died on April 28 in Riviera Beach. She was formally charged in June. Prosecutors argued on Monday that the nature of Williams’ alleged actions meets the criteria for seeking capital punishment.
The alleged aggravating factors include the claim that the murder was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” and that Williams killed her daughter “in a cold, calculated, and premediated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification,” according to the prosecution. Additional aggravating factors include that Nia was under 12 years old and that Williams “stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim.”
An eight-page probable cause arrest affidavit reveals the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Nia’s life and death. Her difficult life began when Williams allegedly left her at the hospital after giving birth. Nia was placed in foster care for six months before living with Rebecca Finley and her daughter, Whytni Walker, who also cared for Williams’ other three children.
Finley and Walker had custody of the children intermittently over several years. The affidavit states that whenever Williams regained custody, Nia sustained serious injuries.
In April 2021, Nia was hospitalized with a broken right femur and a head laceration. Williams allegedly neglected to have the staples removed from Nia’s head, causing skin to grow over them. Later, in September of that year, Nia suffered a broken arm, according to police. In 2022, she was also treated for “multiple burn marks from boiling water,” as detailed in the complaint.
According to police, Williams was reunified with her kids in 2023 after completing a parenting program. Finley said Williams was addicted to drugs and would take her frustrations out on her kids, with Nia getting the “brunt” of it, according to cops.
Detectives spoke with Nia’s teacher, who said the girl had missed some 50 days during the 2024-2025 school year. When she did come to school, she often wore dirty clothes, the affidavit said. Still, her teacher described her as “brilliant and sweet.”
Williams never answered when school officials called her to relay their concerns, police wrote. The child came to school on April 25 — three days before her death — appearing to be “very sick,” cops said. She complained of severe stomach pains, vomited, and said she was “very cold.”
Nia went to the nurse’s office, but she could not be treated because her mother never signed the parental consent form, nor did she answer phone calls to come pick her up, cops wrote.
Investigators interviewed one of Nia’s siblings, who said the girl was sick all weekend after coming home from school. Nia’s vomit was “black in color,” and she couldn’t eat because of how bad her stomach was hurting, per the affidavit. The sibling explained how Nia – days earlier – got in trouble because she did not clean up her spilled cereal.
In that incident, Williams allegedly became upset, making Nia lie on the ground and stomping on her stomach several times “like you stomp an ant.” Williams then forced Nia to clean up the mess but kicked her in the stomach because she “wasn’t moving fast enough,” detectives wrote. The mother then proceeded to force Nia to “clean the toilet, shower, kitchen sink and straighten up the couch,” the affidavit stated.
On the day of Nia’s death, Williams reportedly woke her daughter up around 7 a.m. and made her eat. Later that day, around 4 p.m., Nia’s sister went to go check on her and found her with “her eyes open and barely breathing.” But Williams waited four hours to call 911, deputies allege.
When paramedics arrived, Williams allegedly said Nia may be overdosing on medicine so they gave her Narcan. But doctors later determined that she had no medicine in her system. Instead, she had a lacerated liver and was in renal failure. Her large intestines were detached from her abdomen and “half of her body’s blood supply was in her stomach,” the complaint said.
She was pronounced dead around 11:15 p.m. on April 28. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Finley and Walker spoke with local NBC affiliate WPTV following Williams’ first appearance hearing. They described Nia as a “fashionista” who loved to put on makeup.
Finley said families had long tried to sound the alarm on Williams.
“She should have been in jail a long time ago,” she said.
Williams “caused the death” and it was “definitely abuse,” Finley said.
Finley told the outlet she contacted Florida’s Department of Children and Families nearly two weeks before Nia’s death because the girl was “very malnourished.” She expressed frustration that nothing was allegedly done to prevent Williams from hurting Nia.
“There wasn’t one person who was not aware of this young lady being a dangerous mother,” said Finley.
DCF did not respond to a message from Law&Crime.
Walker and Finley said they won’t stop until they get justice for Nia.
“We can never get her smile back,” Walker said. “We can never talk to her again.”
Williams is due next in court on Aug. 13.
