Jurors heard Aaniyah Nowden claim self-defense before convicting her of capital murder in Justina Wallace’s death.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A cellphone video became a key piece of evidence before jurors convicted Aaniyah Nowden of capital murder for shooting pregnant mother Justina Wallace during a 2023 confrontation in Birmingham.
The video did not make the case simple. It became the point around which both sides tested Nowden’s self-defense claim. The defense said Wallace was aggressive and belligerent before the gunfire. Prosecutors said the recording and other evidence showed Wallace was unarmed, holding her toddler and not attacking. The jury accepted the prosecution’s account, found Nowden guilty on one capital murder count and set up a life-without-parole sentence.
The confrontation happened July 7, 2023, at a home on the 3200 block of 17th Avenue North. Wallace, 36, had gone to the home and became involved in an argument with Nowden and a man who had fathered Wallace’s toddler and Nowden’s unborn child. Wallace was several months pregnant. Nowden was eight months pregnant. Wallace was holding her toddler daughter, and two of Wallace’s sons were nearby. At some point during the encounter, Nowden approached with a gun and fired. Wallace died at a hospital the next day.
Prosecutors used the video to narrow jurors’ attention to the moment deadly force was used. They argued that Wallace did not have a weapon and was not moving in a way that justified a shooting. Deputy District Attorney Jason Wilson told the jury Wallace was carrying her child and had “no weapon.” That argument placed the state’s case on the difference between a heated dispute and an immediate threat. The state said anger, jealousy or fear did not make the shooting lawful without a real danger that required deadly force.
Nowden’s testimony gave jurors the opposing frame. She said she acted to defend herself. Her lawyers pointed to the argument that preceded the shot and asked jurors to consider how the scene looked to Nowden, who was heavily pregnant and facing a woman they described as hostile. The defense did not need to prove Wallace had a gun to raise self-defense, but it needed jurors to see reasonable fear in the moments before Nowden fired. The verdict showed jurors did not find that claim strong enough.
The charges reflected several legal theories. Nowden was initially charged with three counts of capital murder after Wallace and Wallace’s unborn child died. The presence of children at the scene also mattered in the capital case. By the end, jurors dismissed two counts and convicted her on one. That split result left Nowden convicted of the most serious form of homicide in Alabama while showing that jurors separated the counts rather than treating the indictment as all or nothing.
The prosecution had sought the death penalty, making the trial one of the most serious criminal proceedings in Jefferson County. The sentence imposed May 29 was life in prison without parole. That punishment does not allow routine release after a set number of years. It means the conviction, if it stands, keeps Nowden in prison for the rest of her life. A later appeal could challenge trial decisions or legal errors, but the sentencing order remained the controlling outcome after the verdict.
The jury that convicted Nowden was not the first panel the court tried to seat. Earlier in May, a trial attempt ended in a mistrial because too few jurors remained after the prosecution and defense removed potential jurors during selection. That procedural failure delayed the case but did not end it. A second trial moved forward, and jurors heard the evidence, including the video, testimony about the argument and accounts of where Wallace’s children were when the gun was fired.
The relationship between the women formed part of the background but did not answer every question. Reports said the father of Wallace’s toddler was also the father of Nowden’s unborn child. Nowden later gave birth while in custody. Prosecutors did not need to prove a complete motive to win a murder conviction, but the shared connection helped explain why the women were in conflict. The exact emotional chain that led from argument to gunfire remained less clear than the physical facts the jury found decisive.
Wallace’s family losses extended beyond one death. Wallace was a mother of five, and her unborn child did not survive. Two of her children were nearby, while her toddler was in her arms. The trial record turned those details into evidence about threat and vulnerability. Outside the legal frame, they marked the depth of the harm. District Attorney Danny Carr said after the verdict that the case had “no winners,” a phrase that fit a prosecution in which one mother died and another mother went to prison for life.
The video evidence also showed the limits of modern courtroom proof. A recording can capture movement, voices and timing, but jurors still must decide what those details mean under the law. In Nowden’s case, they weighed the footage against witness testimony, legal instructions and competing claims about fear. Their decision turned the video from a disputed record into part of the basis for a capital murder conviction.
The conviction and life-without-parole sentence remain the public outcome. The next step would be any appeal or post-trial ruling that tests whether the video, jury process or other trial issues were handled lawfully.
Author note: Last updated June 29, 2026.