JAMAYA CARROLL - 3 yo (2009) - Cary MS

— Just hours after watching a middle school football game, Karitha
Carroll struggled with an attacker at her home before she and her
3-year-old daughter were stabbed to death, authorities said Thursday.

A day after her uncle found their bodies in a bedroom, little
information emerged on who killed the single mother of three in this
Delta town of fewer than 500 people.Authorities
identified no suspects Thursday. Friends and family members said
Carroll, a 31-year-old convenience store worker, had no enemies, but
they believe she knew her killer."She doesn't open her door unless she knows the person," said her mother, Verda Carroll.Sharkey
County Coroner Angela Eason said she believes Karitha Carroll and her
daughter, Jamya, died late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. Both
were wearing pajamas when their bodies were discovered Wednesday
afternoon, she said."They were either getting ready for bed or getting up," Eason said.Carroll
suffered nine stab wounds, including to her chest, neck, heart, lung,
esophagus and upper body, a preliminary autopsy report shows.Eason cited "multiple slash wounds" to the toddler's neck, arm and throat.The two had been dead for about 12 hours, Eason said.Defensive
wounds on Carroll's arms indicate she "had put up a fight," the coroner
added. She said she doesn't believe burglary or robbery was involved.Crime
tape surrounded the family's small home Thursday on U.S. 61, 35 miles
north of Vicksburg. Aluminum foil and sheets covered the windows; an
old tire, radiator and sock littered the front yard. A Chevy Blazer sat
outside.Authorities
remained tight-lipped. Stanley Goldman, the Sharkey County Sheriff's
Department chief deputy, said he could not speculate on a motive.Josie Jones, a friend, said Carroll "had a good heart. If you needed something, she'd give it to you.""We don't have any idea who would want to do that to them. Somebody sick-minded," she added.Rebecca
McGee, a neighbor who described Carroll as "quiet and reserved," said
the scene Wednesday was "chaos" as authorities, friends and family
members converged on the home about 4 p.m."Something
has to be wrong with people when they commit a crime like that," she
said. "Something has to be wrong with their brain (or) circumstances."Carroll
also had a teenage son and daughter. Tamekai Sanders, a friend and aunt
of Jamya, said Carroll had a boyfriend of three years."As far as what I know, he was a nice guy," Sanders said."She didn't have no worries," Sanders added.

Tony Stamps saw the blood when he went into his 31-year-old
niece’s bedroom Wednesday afternoon and knew something horrible had
happened, but he initially thought her 3-year-old daughter was merely
asleep in the same room. She wasn’t. The toddler, too, had been knifed
to death.

“It was hard. I had never seen anything like that. It was extra hard when I saw the baby,” Stamps said.

Authorities today were continuing to try to identify a suspect in what autopsies have established was a double homicide.

Sharkey
County Coroner Angelia Eason said Karitha Carroll, 31, and Jamaya
Carroll, had been dead about 12 hours when Stamps found them.

Carroll
had multiple stab wounds to her chest and defensive wounds on her arms.
She was on a bedroom floor of her home on U.S. 61, Sharkey County
Sheriff Lindsey Adams Jr. said.

Eason said the mother also
suffered slash wounds to her throat. “All of her wounds were in the
front,” Eason said. “Either she was fighting or trying to stop someone
from cutting her.”

The preliminary report also showed that the
toddler died of slash wounds to her throat, Eason said. Jamaya also was
slashed on her right arm. The toddler was found on the bed, officials
said.

“Right now, we’re not ruling anybody out,” Adams said of the investigation.

Stamps said he was checking on his niece after many calls and text messages from family, friends and co-workers went unanswered.

“It was unlike Karitha not to return phone calls,” he said.


Adams said investigators found very few signs of struggle in the home. A lamp was on the floor next to Carroll’s body.

Officials
believe the assailant was someone Carroll knew because she and her
daughter were killed in a bedroom rather than the living room, Adams
said.

The sheriff and Carroll’s friend Marcella Thomas, who
worked at Church’s Chicken on Pace Street in Rolling Fork, saw her
Tuesday night at a South Delta Middle School football game.

Thomas said she and Carroll sat and laughed together while they watched Carroll’s 13-year-old son, DeQuontae Carroll, play.

“She didn’t act like something was wrong,” Thomas said. “It didn’t look like she had any problems in her life.”

Thomas
said Carroll always had a smile as did her daughter who had started
attending Ripley Blackwell Head Start Center last month.

Carroll’s
mother, Verda Stamps, said her last conversation with her daughter was
about who would get Jamaya, known as China, off the school bus Tuesday
evening.

Family members and friends agree that Carroll adored
her three children and would often drive around with Jamaya, DeQuontae
and her 14-year-old daughter, Kaneisha Carroll, who attends South Delta
High School.

Kaneisha and DeQuontae live with their grandmother, and they were with her when their mother and sister were slain.

Archie Sanders Jr., Jamaya’s father, could not be reached.

Sharkey County officials said this morning they want to talk to a
Memphis man, already listed on the U.S. Marshals Top 15 fugitives list,
in the fatal knifing of a Cary woman and her 3-year-old daughter last
week.

Robert Lee King, 45, was reportedly seen in the Cary area
around the time of the slayings of Karitha Carroll, 31, and her
daughter, Jamaya Carroll, Chief Deputy Stanley Coleman said.

“It’s doubtful that he is still in the area,” Coleman said.

Cary is 40 miles north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61.

Karitha
and Jamaya Carroll’s uncle, Tony Stamps, found the mother and daughter
in a bedroom in their U.S. 61 home Wednesday evening after phone calls
and text messages from family and friends went unanswered. They were
believed to have been dead 12 hours before being found.

King is
on the U.S. Marshals list as a suspect in the 2005 killing of a Memphis
woman and an attack on her daughter that left the 20-year-old
critically injured. His name was added to the list that includes
several murder suspects in May 2009.

A preliminary autopsy found
Karitha Carroll died from multiple stab wounds to her chest and Jamaya
Carroll died from multiple slash wounds to her neck, Sharkey County
Coroner Angelia Eason has said.

Coleman said details of the Carrolls’ murder scene were similar to those of the Memphis case.

Coleman said county officials also are interested in others but did not name them.

“Nobody has been excluded” from the investigation, he said.

AMW Case File


Robert Lee King



Memphis Fugitive Added To USMS 15 Most Wanted List

Federal law enforcement officials say Dorothy Smith had no idea what her estranged boyfriend Robert Lee King was capable of -- until one ill-fated night in December when cops say he completely snapped. Now an alleged killer is on the loose, and the U.S. Marshals have made him one of their 15 Most Wanted Fugitives.

Last updated February 11, 2011

Tenn. Family's Dreams Interrupted By Nightmare Before Christmas


Robert Lee King is wanted by the U.S. Marshals for allegedly killing Dorothy Smith and critically wounding her daughter, Diana.

The holidays are a time of joy and fellowship for many, but for Diana Smith, they are a grim reminder of the terrifying night that would change her life forever.

It was Dec. 1, 2005, when Diana drifted off to sleep, only to awake in the midst of a living nightmare.

Police say she awoke around 4:15 a.m. in her Memphis, Tenn., home to overhear her mother, Dorothy, in a heated argument with her estranged boyfriend, Robert Lee King.

Concerned by her mother's screams for help, cops say she wandered down the hallway to make sure everything was OK.

According to cops, she reached the bedroom doorway to see King standing over her mother repeatedly stabbing her in the neck while she lay in bed.

Shocked at the gruesome scene she had stumbled upon, police say Diana frantically ran down the hallway to lock herself in her bedroom to call the cops.

Police say she was in the middle of a phone call when she heard King’s footsteps thundering down the hallway.

They say King then broke down the door to Diana’s bedroom making her his next victim before fleeing the grisly scene of the crime.

Diana would survive; her mother, tragically, would not.
According to authorities, King has a history of controlling behavior and a penchant for adult video and x-rated stores.

Police: King Considered Armed And Dangerous



Have you seen accused murderer Robert Lee King?

Be very careful, but don't be afraid to call our Hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV.

Now, police need the public’s help in finding this alleged cold-blooded killer who they say attacked Dorothy Smith to the point of near decapitation and left her adoring daughter forever scarred.

Cops say Robert Lee King is a black man who stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs approximately 185 pounds. King has black hair and brown eyes, and usually wears his hair in the “Jheri curl” style.

Police think he may have a tattoo of an upside down crown on his left arm with the name "Victoria" printed underneath it. On his right arm, they believe he has a tattoo of a upside-down horseshoe with the name "Robert" printed under it.

According to authorities, King has a history of controlling behavior, and has a penchant for adult video and x-rated stores. He particularly likes porn featuring white women and often edits together his own movies. Cops say he loves basketball and his favorite team in the L.A. Lakers.

King may be working in a grocery store as a clerk. He is also very good with cars and might be able to get a job as a mechanic.

Police say King has a tight-knit family, and that he could be hanging out in Illinois, near Chicago. They say he has contacts in Greenville, Miss., and in the state of Florida.
King May Be Linked To Another Crime

During their investigation, U.S. Marshals discovered that King is also a person of interest in a double murder in Sharkey County, Miss. Karitha Carroll, just 31 years old and her daughter, 3-year-old Jamaya, were killed in September 2009. According the the Sharkey County Sheriff Lindsey Adams, King has been spotted throughout the rural county. U.S Marshals think the the sightings are credible because King's car was spotted.

Police believe that King might still be driving a red two-door Subaru coupe from the late 1980s with black and gold stripes on the side. Sources say that King loved the car and spent hours washing and waxing it. The car also has a black bra on the front.

King is considered so dangerous that the U.S. Marshals Service has placed him on their “15 Most Wanted” list and are offering $25,000 for any information leading directly to King’s arrest.

If you know the whereabouts of this accused killer, call our Hotline right away at 1-800-CRIME-TV. Remember: You can remain anonymous.

(Information valid as of February 25, 2011)

Cold case murder suspects appear in court

Posted: Nov 13, 2012 5:05 PM CST
Updated: Feb 24, 2013 8:18 PM CST
By WLBT Staff - email

SHARKEY COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -  Investigators have arrested three people in connection with a 2009 gruesome murder in Cary.

Karitha Carroll and her 3-year-old daughter Jamiah were found stabbed to death Sept. 29, 2009.

Tuesday, two of the suspects made their initial appearances in court.
 




Shawn Waller of Cary and Stephanie Ann Smith of Jackson both entered not guilty pleas to two counts each of capital murder.  Their bonds were set at $1 million.

The third suspect, Josephine Warren, is in Mississippi Department of Corrections custody. She will have her initial appearance Thursday.  Warren is serving a six-year sentence for burglary.

Sharkey County Sheriff Lindsey Adams would not elaborate on the details of how the three suspects were identified.

He would only say that within the last week investigators received credible information from a "reliable source."

"This is closure, it means closure to the whole family, all the family, they can finally rest," said Jamiah's grandmother Barbara Sanders.

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/20088332/two-cold-case-murder-suspects-appear-in-court

Cary double murder arrest

Posted: Oct 20, 2010 10:38 PM CDT
Updated: Feb 28, 2013 7:59 AM CST

CARY, Miss. (WLBT) - WLBT reported, Tuesday night, that authorities in Sharkey County were questioning a relative in connection with the 2009 murders of a mother and daughter.

Apparently, that line of questioning led to his arrest.

Tony Stamps is charged with obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence.

Karitha Carroll, 31, and her daughter Jamaya, 3, were found with their throats slashed inside their home on Sept. 23rd, 2009.

Stamps discovered their bodies.

Authorities say Stamps is being held in the Rankin County Jail Wednesday night for his own protection.

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/13361596/cary-murder-arrest

Cary capital murder suspects released from jail

Posted: Apr 09, 2013 9:01 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 30, 2013 5:22 PM CDT

SHARKEY COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) - Authorities say they're back to square one in a double murder investigation in Sharkey County.

According to WABG-TV Sheriff Lindsey Adams says the star witness, Josephine Warren has recanted her version of events in the deaths of Karitha Carroll and her daughter Jamiah.

Carroll and the 3-year-old were found stabbed to death in their Cary home in 2009.

Warren's testimony led to the Grand Jury delivering a no bill for Shawn Waller of Cary and Stephanie Ann Smith of Jackson. Both were originally charged with two counts of capital murder.

Sheriff Adams says he doesn't know why Warren recanted her statement.

Smith and Waller have been released from the Issaquena County jail.

Warren will be taken back to the Hinds County Detention Center where she is serving time for a burglary conviction.

http://www.wfxg.com/story/21926190/capital-murder-suspects-released-from-jail