Zakieya Avery | Murderer
Zakieya Avery
Born: 1985
Murder To Save
American Killer
Crime Spree: January 17, 2014
Committed to the State’s Mental Hospital
Germantown, Maryland 2014
Zakieya Avery and Monifa Sanford were members of a group called the ‘Demon Assassins.’ The women apparently believed they were engaging in spiritual warfare when they stabbed four of Avery’s children, killing the two youngest among them.
A Montgomery County District courtroom remained silent as prosecutors described an attempted exorcism that left two toddlers dead and their two older siblings critically injured and barely clinging to life.
The children’s mother, Zakieya Avery, 28 at the time, and Avery’s close friend, Monifa Sanford, just 21, were facing two counts of first degree murder and two counts of first degree attempted murder.
The Crime Scene
Around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, January 17, 2014, police arrived at the horrifyingly bizarre and heartbreaking crime scene in the 19000 block of Cherry Bend Drive in Germantown. Inside the modest two-story town home, officers located the lifeless bodies of one-year-old Norell Harris and his two-year-old sister Zyana Harris. Both were lying in their mother’s bed. Five-year-old Taniya Harris was barely clinging to life in an adjacent bedroom, curled in the fetal position with multiple stab wounds.
A Demonic Spirit
According to comments made in court, Monifa Sanford had scheduled an in-home exorcism on Thursday night, January 16, 2014, for a group member named Troy. Troy never arrived for his appointment. Then, around 5 a.m., both women reportedly became convinced a demonic spirit had invaded the soul’s of all four children, turning their eyes dark black.
What began with an attempt to break the neck of the youngest child, and proceeded into the strangulation and stabbing death of the youngest two, the women worked at eliminating the dark spirit from all of her children.
After the attack on the children, the two women showered together to wash the blood off themselves. They then cleaned up the crime scene and prepared the children to see God.
Both women were arrested and held without bond.
Zakieya Avery
Zakieya Avery enlisted district public defender Brian Shefferman, while Sanford’s family hired private defense attorneys Edward Leyden and Dana Jones-Oliver.
The prosecution disclosed Avery’s record of psychiatric delusions and Sanford’s history of suicide attempts. Consequently, the judge ordered both women be taken to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a maximum security psychiatric facility, to undergo extensive mental health testing to see if either was equipped to stand trial.
The Bond Hearing
Authorities say Monifa Sanford met Zakieya Avery about eight months prior to the night of the attempted exorcism. Despite the brutal nature of their alleged crimes, both women spoke quietly and maintained meek outer appearances during their bond hearings. Both women remained behind bars without bond, pending their psychiatric evaluations.
Not Guilty
After all things were considered, a Montgomery County judge ruled Zakieya Avery’s “barbaric” and “sadistic” murders of her two young children, ‘during an exorcism’, were not the act of a rational human being. He found her (and Monifa Sanford) not criminally responsible for her actions.
On September 15, 2016, Zakieya Avery pleaded guilty to the murders and the assaults. The Montgomery County, Maryland judge ruled that she was legally insane at the time of the crimes and sent Avery to a maximum security psychiatric hospital where she would stay until her doctors declared her sane enough to leave.
source: murderpedia | Kevin Lewis | jimfishertruecrime
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