Prosecutors in Florida have filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against a mother accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter by stomping her to death after the girl spilled cereal.
Naikishia Williams, 32, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the April 28 death of Nia Williams in Riviera Beach. She was indicted in June. The state argued on Monday that Williams’ alleged actions met the requirements for capital punishment.
Prosecutors alleged that the murder was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” and that Williams killed her daughter “in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.” Nia was under the age of 12 at the time, and Williams “stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim.”
An eight-page probable cause arrest affidavit describes the tragic events surrounding Nia’s life and death. Her life began poorly when Williams allegedly abandoned her at the hospital after giving birth to her. Nia spent six months in foster care before being placed with Rebecca Finley and her daughter, Whytni Walker, who were caring for Williams’ other three children.
Finley and Walker shared custody of the children on and off for several years. But whenever Williams had custody of the children, Nia suffered serious injuries, according to the affidavit.
Nia went to the hospital in April 2021 with a broken right femur and a laceration on the back of her head. Williams allegedly failed to remove the staples from the back of Nia’s head, causing skin to grow over them. Then, in September of that year, police reported that Nia had broken her arm. She also received treatment in 2022 for “multiple burn marks from boiling water,” according to the complaint.
According to police, Williams was reunited with her children in 2023 after completing a parenting program. Finley claimed Williams was addicted to drugs and would vent her frustrations on her children, with Nia receiving the “brunt” of it, according to police.
Detectives spoke with Nia’s teacher, who stated that the girl had missed approximately 50 days during the 2024-2025 school year. When she did attend school, she frequently wore dirty clothes, according to the affidavit. Nevertheless, her teacher described her as “brilliant and sweet.”
According to police, Williams never returned calls from school officials expressing their concerns. The child arrived at school on April 25 — three days before her death — and appeared to be “very sick,” according to police. She complained of severe stomach pain, vomited, and stated that she was “very cold.”
Nia went to the nurse’s office, but she couldn’t be treated because her mother never signed the parental consent form and didn’t answer phone calls to come pick her up, police said.
Investigators interviewed one of Nia’s siblings, who stated that the girl had been sick all weekend after returning home from school. According to the affidavit, Nia’s vomit was “black in color,” and she was unable to eat due to severe stomach pain. The sibling explained how Nia got in trouble a few days earlier for failing to clean up her spilled cereal.
Williams allegedly became upset during that incident, forcing Nia to lie on the ground and repeatedly stomping on her stomach “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,” according to detectives. The mother then ordered Nia to “clean the toilet, shower, kitchen sink, and straighten up the couch,” according to the affidavit.
Williams allegedly woke her daughter up at 7 a.m. on the day Nia died and forced her to eat. Later that day, around 4 p.m., Nia’s sister went to check on her and discovered her with “her eyes open and barely breathing.” However, deputies allege that Williams waited four hours before calling 911.
When paramedics arrived, Williams allegedly said Nia was overdosing on medicine, so they administered Narcan. However, doctors later discovered that she had no medicine in her system. Instead, she had a lacerated liver and was in kidney failure. Her large intestines had detached from her abdomen, and “half of her body’s blood supply was in her stomach,” according to the complaint.
She was pronounced dead around 11:15 p.m. on April 28. Her death was ruled homicide.
Finley and Walker spoke with WPTV, a local NBC affiliate, following Williams’ first appearance hearing. They described Nia as a “fashionista” who enjoyed putting on makeup.
Finley stated that families had long attempted to raise the alarm on Williams.
“She should have been in jail a long time ago,” she joked.
Williams “caused the death” and it was “definitely abuse,” according to Finley.
Finley told the outlet that she contacted Florida’s Department of Children and Families nearly two weeks before Nia died because the child was “very malnourished.” She expressed her dissatisfaction that nothing was allegedly done to stop Williams from hurting Nia.
“There wasn’t one person who was not aware of this young lady being a dangerous mother,” Finley told me.
DCF did not return a message from Law&Crime.
Walker and Finley stated that they will not stop until Nia receives justice.
“We can never get her smile back,” Walker said. “We can never talk to her again.”
Williams is due back in court on August 13.
