In Florida, Jahara Malik was prosecuted as an adult after killing Yahkeim Lollar when she was 17.
MIAMI, Fla. — A Florida judge chose prison over boot camp Tuesday, sentencing 18-year-old Jahara Malik to 17 years for the manslaughter of her boyfriend, Yahkeim “Keimo” Lollar, who died from a stab wound in 2024.
The ruling ended a sentencing fight over how the court should punish a defendant who was 17 at the time of the crime and had no prior arrests. Malik pleaded guilty in March to manslaughter with a deadly weapon, but there was no plea deal fixing her punishment. Prosecutors asked for 20 years in prison and 10 years of probation. The defense asked for youthful offender treatment and a Miami-Dade boot camp program. Judge Christine Hernandez imposed 17 years in prison and five years of reporting probation.
Hernandez said the sentence had to recognize the seriousness of the crime, the need for accountability and the need to protect the public. She said Malik’s youth did not excuse the conduct that killed Lollar. The judge also set a probation condition aimed at keeping the death before Malik after prison. Each Dec. 20 during probation, Malik must write a letter acknowledging what happened and how it affected her life. The date is the anniversary of Lollar’s death.
The case began Dec. 20, 2024, when Miami police responded around 11 p.m. to a report of a stabbing in the parking garage of an apartment complex in the 6100 block of Northwest Sixth Court. Lollar, 17, was found with a chest wound on the third floor of the garage, according to investigators. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:53 p.m. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide.
Investigators said Malik told detectives she had planned to go shopping with a friend earlier that day and looked for pepper spray she usually carried for protection. When she could not find it, she took a knife instead. After shopping, she met Lollar in the parking garage. Malik described the moments before the stabbing as horseplay. Police said surveillance video showed her dropping a knife near the scene. A portion of her statement to detectives was redacted in the public arrest report.
The legal question at sentencing was not whether Malik caused Lollar’s death. Her guilty plea settled that issue. The fight was over what her responsibility should mean. Prosecutor Kristen Rodriguez argued that the facts showed more than immature play. She said the knife went through Lollar’s hoodie, shirt and muscle, clipped his rib and entered his heart. Rodriguez said Malik’s decision to bring out a knife during play made serious injury foreseeable, even if the defense said she did not mean to kill him.
Defense attorneys said the stabbing was not planned and not intentional. They told the court Malik stayed at the scene and tried to help Lollar after he was stabbed. Malik also had no prior arrest record, a point the defense used to argue that rehabilitation should guide the sentence. Her lawyer said boot camp and therapy would break her down and build her back up. He described the use of the knife as a sign of immaturity and reckless judgment, not a sign that Malik deserved almost two decades in prison.
Lollar’s family pushed back hard against the defense view. His mother, Nathalie Jean, had rejected the horseplay argument at earlier hearings, saying children are taught not to play with sharp objects. His father, Darveed Lollar Sr., told the judge that Lollar was well respected and trusted Malik. “It took for somebody he trusted and loved to do him like that,” he said. Family members described the 17-year-old as a high school football player with a bright future and said his death left a hole that no sentence could fill.
The case’s path through court added to the family’s frustration. Malik was not immediately arrested after the stabbing, even though relatives said there was no real question about who was involved. She was arrested in January 2025 and later appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Stacy D. Glick, who set bond at $50,000 and ordered GPS monitoring. Glick said Malik did not appear to be a flight risk because she had no prior arrests, but the decision upset Lollar’s family, which wanted her held in jail.
Release conditions became a major issue before the guilty plea. Prosecutors later sought tighter limits, and Malik’s house arrest was restricted while the case was pending. Lollar’s relatives attended hearings and protested outside the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, demanding accountability. By the time Malik pleaded guilty in March 2026, the trial question was gone. The family then turned its attention to the maximum possible punishment, while the defense prepared to argue for the court to treat Malik as a teenager capable of rehabilitation.
At the sentencing hearing, Malik stood before the judge and said she accepted responsibility. She said she wanted Lollar to live and stayed because she knew she was at fault. “I was reckless,” Malik said. “That knife should never have been out, and because of that, a life was lost.” She said trying to help him did not undo the harm. “The family wants me in prison, but I’m in my own prison for the rest of my life,” she said.
The victim impact statements carried a different force. Zeldrina Beecham, Lollar’s aunt, told the court she was doing everything in her power not to attack Malik physically in the courtroom. “It will always be a fact that you are a murderer,” Beecham said. “If you was to go to hell, I wouldn’t spit on you to put you out.” Her statement showed the depth of the family’s anger and why relatives had opposed any sentence they saw as lenient.
Hernandez’s sentence landed between the two sides but much closer to the state’s request. Seventeen years was three years less than prosecutors wanted and far more severe than the defense proposal. The five years of reporting probation means Malik will remain under court supervision after leaving prison. The letter requirement on the anniversary of Lollar’s death gives the sentence an added record of reflection, though it does not change the length of the prison term.
After court, the two families reacted in opposite ways. Lollar’s relatives embraced, and Jean said justice had been served. Malik’s relatives cried, and one uncle said the court had not recognized that Malik was a youthful offender when the stabbing happened. The comments reflected the sentencing divide Hernandez had to resolve: whether Malik’s age should reduce punishment or whether the loss of Lollar’s life required a long prison sentence.
For now, Malik’s criminal case stands at sentencing, with 17 years in prison and five years of reporting probation imposed. The next court-defined obligation tied to the case is Malik’s probation letter requirement on future Dec. 20 anniversaries after her release.
Author note: Last updated May 25, 2026.