(September 12, 2012) The trial of the teen Whitehead twins who allegedly killed their mother by beating and stabbing her to death in 2010 has been postponed until a later date to be decided. The trial had been due to start Sept. 26.
Defense attorney Dwight Thomas, who represents one of the twins Jasimyah Whitehead, is also representing a specially set double-homicide death penalty case in DeKalb County involving a police officer. That case is estimated to start the first week of October and last anywhere from four to six weeks, said Michael Holmes, an attorney with Thomas’s firm.
Considering the scheduling, Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Sidney Nation signed an order removing the Whitehead twins trial, off of the September and October calendar and ordered that prosecutors and defense attorneys to find a mutually suitable date.
Tasmiyah Whitehead is being represented by Conyers attorney David LaMalva. Currently the twins are being held separately in Rockdale and Newton county jails. They will have a jury trial together.
The twins were arrested May 2010 and accused of beating and stabbing to death Jarmecca "Nikki" Whitehead, 34, at their Conyers home in the gated Bridle Ridge Walk subdivision. The girls, who were 16-years-old at the time, claimed they discovered their mother's bloody body that January afternoon when they returned home from school. They flagged down a deputy who was in the neighborhood on another matter for help.
Child abuse murder trial set to start
The trial for the beating death of toddler Cayden Allen is set to start with jury selection on Monday, Sept. 24 in Rockdale County Superior Court Judge David Irwin’s courtroom.
James Rivera Sims, 24, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery and cruelty to children in the first degree. He was arrested April 2011 after Allen, who was nearly 2-years-old at the time, was reported as unconscious and struggling to breathe and died at Egleston Children’s Hospital a couple days later.
Sims, the boyfriend of Allen’s mother, told Conyers police the baby had collapsed during a potty training session. Medical personnel reported the child had died of blows to the head and found other injuries to his body. Sims later admitted he had spanked the child with his hand. Allen had only recently come to live with his mother and Sims after Allen’s mother had only recently gained custody of the child. Previously Cayden Allen been living with his grandparents in Kentucky.
Police had been to the household before for domestic violence. Allen’s mother and Sims had both been charged with simple assault under the Family Violence Act in December 2010 but the mother was able to have the case dismissed.
