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Skyy Mims during a trial break Wednesday. (WRCB photo)
Skyy Mims' dreams of modeling on runways or entertaining on music stages are over.
Jurors who deliberated 52 minutes Friday evening convicted the Detroiter of murder and armed robbery in northern Georgia 15 months ago, according to tweets from journalists.
She didn't testify during a week-long trial that introduced extensive physical and circumstantial evidence implicating her in the death of Dahyabhai Chandhari, a 37-year-old convenience store clerk from India who was stabbed twice. Mims took 80 scratch-off lottery tickets and at least $300 from his shop near I-75.
"This was a sad case," defense attorney Carla Marable of Detroit tells Deadline on Saturday. "Ms. Mims is so smart and had a future."
Tyler Jett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press gives this background in Saturday's paper:
Mims, 22, moved to the Atlanta area in January 2014 to make connections in the entertainment industry. She wanted to be a rapper, dancer, model and fashion designer.Her roommates testified this week that she hoped to fund her creative ambitions by winning the lottery.
She'll be sentenced June 19.
Marable said she'll request the lightest punishment: life with a chance of parole -- according to Jett.
She would be eligible to leave prison in 30 years, when she turns 52.
Friday afternoon article:
Dahyabhai Chandhari was stabbed in a March 2014 robbery.
In response to an array of incriminating evidence against her client, attorney Carla Marable told Georgia jurors Friday afternoon that authorities charged the wrong young Detroit woman with fatally stabbing a convenience store clerk.
The mistaken identity defense of Skyy Mims, a 22-year-old who wanted to be a model and hip-hop artist, was raised by Carla Marable in her summation. She had previewed that claim in opening remarks Monday.
Dahyabhai Chandhari, a 37-year-old convenience store clerk from India, was slain in a March 2014 robbery near I-75 in northern Georgia. In addition to felony murder, Mims is charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary.
Jurors left court to begin deliberations at 5:25 p.m.
The defendant didn't testify -- an option Marable told the judge she dissuaded her client from risking.
This description of the trial's fifth day, when each side gave closing arguments, comes from live tweets by reporter Tyler Jett of the Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn., the largest city near the trial in Dalton, Ga.
Keisha Jones (left) and accused killer Skyy Mims are both from Detroit and each visited the Atlanta area.
Marable says Keisha Jones, a 33-year-old who resembles Mims and knew her at least slightly, should have been found and questioned. Mims also is an aspiring rapper, had lived for a while in Marietta, Ga., and was acquainted with a west-side Detroiter -- Kylle Harewood, 34 -- who befriended Mims in the state.
"Isn't it possible that Kylle and Keisha . . . did this together? It's possible he's the getaway driver," the attorney is quoted as saying Friday.
"You don't bother to investigate her [Jones] at all? At all?" Marable also said, alluding to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Marable: "This is a girl who we get the lead on. ... Don't you think it's ironic that can't nobody find her now? ... That girl is long gone"
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Marable: "What's the chances of (Keisha Jones) looking so similar. ... They dress similar." #SkyyMimsTrial
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Depicting Harewood (who testified Wednesday, as "a sexual deviant drug addict," Marable added: "He has a motive to lie because he likes Fiyah (Jones' nickname) better than Ms. Mims."
Marable: Kylle Harewood can make women do whatever they want to do. #SkyyMimsTrial
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
But Marable, a 48-year-old Detroiter, presented no theory of Jones' possible motive and no alibi for the defendant, whose phone was alongside the victim's body and who was arrested nearby two days later.
Evidence also includes 80 scratch-off lottery tickets -- found in Mims' room -- taken from the shop where Chandhari was stabbed twice. Gloves with his blood and her DNA also were linked to her by investigators.
In his summation, prosecutor Bert Poston ridiculed Marable's theory as a wispy fantasy.
Poston: "The entire defense theory of this case -- the story that's been told -- there's no evidence to support that." #SkyyMims
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Poston: Keisha Jones looks kind of like Skyy Mims. But a lot of women look like that, "superficially."
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Poston on Mims and Jones similarities: "It's superficial. They're both female. They're both African American. They're both light skinned."
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Poston: After arrested, Mims said, "You caught me red handed." "Literally, that's where the saying comes from: Blood on your hands."
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
Poston: Phone at the scene was registered to Mims. (Marable never tried to explain this.) #SkyyMimsTrial
— Tyler Jett (@LetsJett) May 1, 2015
