Left: Janise Barthold (GoFundMe). Right: Dominique Domond (Miami-Dade Department of Corrections).
A 20-year-old Florida man allegedly choked his girlfriend to death and then ditched her body in the backyard.
Court records show Dominique Domond stands accused of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Janise Barthold. The Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office told local NBC affiliate WTVJ that police responded Monday night to a home at Northeast Second Avenue and Northeast 107th Street to reports about an unresponsive woman in the backyard. Deputies arrived at the home and met with Domond’s mother who led them to the backyard were Barthold lay on the ground. Paramedics pronounced her dead on scene.
According to cops, Domond’s mother said her son told her that he was attacked by Barthold and an unknown man which led to him strangling her and fighting off the other man. Post Miranda, Domond eventually admitted that there were no other people in the house and that he choked her to death during an argument. He then threw her in the backyard, cops said.
Detectives arrested Domond on Tuesday. He remains in jail without bond.
Barthold’s friends and family held a candlelight vigil and balloon release in her honor on Wednesday night. Quincy Vincent, Barthold’s brother, said he wished he could have done more to help his sister.
“She didn’t deserve this at all,” he said, according to ABC affiliate WSVN. “She was a beautiful young girl. This is just tragic. He shouldn’t have gone that far with domestic violence. It didn’t have to go like that. I’m so sorry for all of this. I don’t even know how to say I’m sorry to myself for letting her down.”
Many of those in attendance donned T-shirts with her picture emblazoned on the front. But loved ones said they would much rather have her with them instead.
“I’m not happy that she’s on my shirt, to be honest,” her aunt said. “I don’t want her to be on my shirt. I want her to be physically here with me. To me, it’s a shame that I have to put on a shirt to represent her. That is not something that I do with pride. That’s something that I do with humiliation and with my head down.”
Vincent started a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.
“A beautiful soul was taken away due to tragic domestic violence,” he wrote.
