Jury Finds T’Kia Bevily Not Guilty of Killing Her 14-Month-Old Stepdaughter, Jurayah Smith

A jury found T’Kia Bevily not guilty of capital murder.

The Claiborne County woman was accused of killing her 14-month-old stepdaughter Jurayah Smith in October 2017.

She is now absolved of her charge, WLBT News reported.

In an interview conducted hours after Bevily walked free, Dennis Sweet IV, one of her attorneys, made a statement saying, “she’s been innocent this whole time.”

“There’s going to be some more action coming,” said Sweet. “We are not done. We are going to continue to fight, and we are going to continue to clear her name.”

Another one of Bevily’s lawyers, Lawrence Blackmon, also made a statement, saying it was one of the greatest honors of his career to representing Bevily, and added that the fight for her justice was hard.

Bevily sat through weeks of having both her name and character “dragged through the mud.”

“I believe she was specifically called a murderer and a murder weapon today by the State of Mississippi, but the facts were just not there to support those accusations,” said Blackmon.

“When God is for you, no man or woman in suit or in robe can be against you…” Blackmon added.

“When I heard Judge Irving say ‘not guilty,’ I was kind of in shock a little bit,” Bevily admitted. “And then when it really hit me, I broke down.”

Bevily described her last few years as torturous. “It’s an unexplainable feeling to have two small children and not know if you’ll be there to watch them grow up…”

In 2021, she was found guilty of killing her stepdaughter and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

That same year, a judge overturned her conviction due to jury misconduct, in which evidence that came forward suggested a juror was related to the victim.

Bevily’s attorneys then asked for the venue to be changed because they didn’t think they’d get a fair trial in Claiborne County.

“I hate that it had to take us moving to a completely different county in a different part of the state for me to finally get my fair and impartial day in trial, but I am so thankful,” Bevily expressed. “I’m thankful to the citizens of Monroe County camera out only solve who came out only with the sole purpose to hear the fax and only the facts of the case and make the right decisions and make the right decision today.”

The child’s father, Morris Bevily, was also charged with capital murder and was supposed to stand trial in 2021 after T’Kia’s. He still has not gone to trial.

When asked what was next for her, Bevily said, “we are moving somewhere,” causing her attorneys to laugh. “As soon as we are cleared,” she continued, “we are out of that part of Mississippi.”