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Left: Naikishia Williams (Palm Beach County Jail). Right: Nia Williams (Bell & Clark Funeral Home).
Prosecutors in Florida filed a notice of their intent to seek the death penalty against a mother who is accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter by stomping her to death because the girl spilled cereal.
Naikishia Williams, 32, is facing charges of 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 on Monday argued that Williams” alleged actions met the qualifications to seek capital punishment.
Among the aggravators: The murder allegedly was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel,” and Williams killed her daughter “in a cold, calculated, and premediated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification,” prosecutors wrote. Other alleged aggravators were the fact that Nia was under 12 years old and Williams “stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim.”
An eight-page probable cause arrest affidavit details the tragic circumstances of Nia’s life and death. Her life got off to an inauspicious start when Williams allegedly left her behind at the hospital after giving birth to her. Nia was put in foster care for six months but was then placed with Rebecca Finley and her daughter, Whytni Walker, who had been caring for Williams’ other three children.
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Finley and Walker had custody of the kids on and off for several years. But whenever Williams had custody of the kids, Nia would suffer serious injuries, the affidavit said.
In April 2021, Nia went to the hospital for a broken right femur and laceration to the back of her head. Williams allegedly never bothered to have the staples removed from the back of Nia’s head, and skin began to grow over them. Then, in September of that year, Nia suffered a broken arm, cops noted. She also was treated in 2022 for “multiple burn marks from boiling water,” the complaint said.
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.
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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.
