Aaniyah Nowden (Birmingham Police Department).
A woman in Alabama has learned her fate for shooting a pregnant woman surrounded by her children while she herself was pregnant.
Aaniyah Nowden, 24, was charged with capital murder in the death of 36-year-old Justina Wallace, the Birmingham Police Department announced in the summer of 2023.
The defendant was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty, AL.com reported. Prosecutors sought the death penalty.
On July 7, 2023, Wallace was at a home on the 3200 Block of 17th Avenue North in Birmingham. The city is located in the center of the state and is home to some 200,000 people.
Wallace — several months pregnant at the time — reportedly held her toddler daughter as two of her sons stood feet away when Nowden approached her with a gun. Nowden — herself eight months pregnant — fired the gun, striking Wallace.
The shooting victim was subsequently brought to an area hospital where she died the following day.
The father of Wallace's toddler is said to also be the father of Nowden's child. The defendant's child was born after the killing while she was in custody, according to the local outlet.
Though Nowden claimed self-defense and her attorneys claimed Wallace was "aggressive" and "belligerent" on the day in question, prosecutors asserted that she presented no threat to the younger woman.
"This defendant shot and killed a pregnant woman who was carrying nothing but her baby Sky in her arms," Deputy District Attorney Jason Wilson said, according to AL.com. "Justina had no weapon, no gun, she wasn't attacking anybody."
Nowden's first trial reportedly ended in a mistrial earlier this month because there were not enough jurors after the prosecution and defense ruled several out. The trial did play out, eventually, with jurors ultimately finding Nowden at fault in the shooting.
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