Aaniyah Nowden (Birmingham Police Department).
In a tragic case from Alabama, a 24-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting a pregnant mother in front of her children, while she herself was expecting a child.
Aaniyah Nowden was convicted of capital murder for the death of 36-year-old Justina Wallace. The Birmingham Police Department made the announcement in the summer of 2023.
On Friday, Nowden’s fate was sealed as a judge handed down the life sentence, as reported by AL.com. The prosecution had initially pursued the death penalty for the crime.
The incident occurred on July 7, 2023, at a residence on 17th Avenue North in Birmingham, a city with a population of approximately 200,000, located in central Alabama.
Wallace, several months into her pregnancy at the time, was holding her toddler daughter as two of her sons stood nearby. It was then that Nowden, who was eight months pregnant, approached with a firearm and shot Wallace.
Wallace was rushed to a local hospital but tragically succumbed to her injuries the next day.
The father of Wallace’s toddler is said to also be the father of Nowden’s child. The defendant’s child was born after the killing while she was in custody, according to the local outlet.
Though Nowden claimed self-defense and her attorneys claimed Wallace was “aggressive” and “belligerent” on the day in question, prosecutors asserted that she presented no threat to the younger woman.
“This defendant shot and killed a pregnant woman who was carrying nothing but her baby Sky in her arms,” Deputy District Attorney Jason Wilson said, according to AL.com. “Justina had no weapon, no gun, she wasn’t attacking anybody.”
Nowden’s first trial reportedly ended in a mistrial earlier this month because there were not enough jurors after the prosecution and defense ruled several out. The trial did play out, eventually, with jurors ultimately finding Nowden at fault in the shooting.
