MIAMI — Anger and grief were laid bare in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday as loved ones of 17-year-old Yakheim Lollar begged a judge to sentence his killer, Jahara Malik, to the max.
Malik, 18, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Lollar, her ex-boyfriend, in March.
Lollar’s family had asked for a 30-year sentence. The judge ended up giving her 17 years behind bars, with five years of probation.
“I’m gonna stand up and honor my son and defend my son,” Darveed Lollar, Yakheim Lollar’s father, said. “I just wanted to be heard. Man, I don’t like the way this case was handled.”
It happened on Dec. 20, 2024 at the apartment building where Lollar lived in the 6100 block of Northwest Sixth Court, in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.
Malik told police the stabbing was an accident — a deadly, unintended result of horseplay.
“It will always be a fact that you are a murderer,” Zeldrina Beecham, Lollar’s aunt, told Malik. “You are a demon seed that your parents brought into this world to bring suffering on everybody else. Shame on them.”
Nathalie Jean, Lollar’s mother, said, “We just want what my son deserved.”
“His life matters. I do not want to leave here today, your honor, feeling like I lost my son all over again,” she said.
Prosecutors played surveillance videos in court, showing Lollar’s final moments after Malik stabbed him in the chest with a pocket knife.
“It went into the third rib on the left side, approximately one inch in depth and hit the heart,” Miami Police Department Sgt. Juan Santos testified.
The sights and sounds were so distressing, some fled the courtroom.
Prosecutors had recommended 20 years of prison with 10 years probation.
Meanwhile, Malik’s attorneys said she was remorseful and they wanted her sentenced as a youthful offender to a boot camp program.
Malik apologized in court Tuesday.
“I was wrong for what I did, and every day I sit and think about the damage I caused,” she said. “The family wants me in prison, but I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life. I wish I can’t go back and change what happened, but I can’, and that’s the worst part. Y’all didn’t deserve this pain and I wish I hadn’t been the one to give it to y’all.”
Besides the years of prison and probation, Malik will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and write a letter on every Dec. 20 during her probation term, acknowledging what has occurred and how it has affected their lives.
“I hope when she goes today to go to prison and get processed, she’s going to sit there and think about the lives that she destroyed,” said Jean.
Malik was remanded immediately after the judge announced her decision.
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