MIAMI (WSVN) - A teenager appeared in court to find out her fate after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing her boyfriend.
Eighteen-year-old Jahara Malik held back tears as surveillance video showed the moments she fatally stabbed 17-year-old Yahkeim Lollar in December 2024.
“You can hear the victim saying at some point: ‘Jahara, don’t,'” said Miami Police Sergeant Juan Santos.
Lollar was a football player for Miami Northwestern Senior High School. His family and loved ones packed the courtroom and connecting hallway during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing.
Some of his loved ones needed to step out of the room after becoming overwhelmed by emotions during the sentencing hearing.
Santos, one of the detectives who responded to the 2024 call, was among those who testified before the court.
The knife used by Malik in the stabbing was also shown to the court.
Malik had told police that day that the stabbing was an accident — a deadly, unintended result of horse-play between the pair.
Despite that claim, Malik pled guilty to fatally stabbing Lollar in March.
Prosecutors are seeking 20 years in prison along with 10 years of probation while Lollar’s loved ones are pushing for a maximum sentence of 30 years behind bars.
Malik addressed the court, saying she’s haunted by what happened.
“The family wants me in prison. I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life. This was my best friend, my love and someone I could vent to about anything and everything. He was a good person and definitely should have been here. We would’ve been getting ready for prom and graduation right now. This is just a sad situation. I miss him every day. I wish I could go back and change what happened but I can’t and that’s the worst part,” Malik told the court. “Y’all didn’t deserve this pain and I wish I hadn’t been the one to give it to y’all.”
The road to reach this point has not been easy for Lollar’s family, who held protests outside of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office that eventually led to prosecutors to file charges against Malik more than a month after the killing.
“My son is dead. Why am I fighting for justice for my son?” said Nathalie Jean, Lollar’s mother, during the protest.
Years after that protest, Lollar’s family is still fighting for justice.
“Not in my wildest dreams that I’d think that my nephew, being such a good person that he was, would be murdered like this,” Lollar’s aunt told the court.
“I am way out of my element, it doesn’t even matter. I’mma stand up and honor my son and defend my son, alright, at every chance I get. I’m sorry, that’s it, man. I just wanted to be heard, I don’t like the way this case was handled,” Lollar’s father told the court.
“We just want what my son deserves. His life matters. I do not want to leave here today, your honor, feeling like I lost my son all over again,” Jean said in court.
The judge ultimately settled on sentencing Malik to 17 years in prison and five years of probation. Malik will also be required to undergo a mental health evaluation and write a letter every year about what occurred and the impact the treatment has had.
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