Left inset: Taquida Hendrix (WHAM/YouTube). Right inset: Malakai Stovall (GoFundMe). Background: The home that Taquida Hendrix allegedly set on fire, killing 5-year-old Malakai Stovall (WHAM/YouTube).
A 5-year-old boy sleeping on the second floor of his New York home was killed in a targeted house fire, and the person who allegedly started the blaze is going on trial this week — with her own sister set to testify against her, reports say.
Taquida Hendrix, 31, is facing murder and arson charges in connection to a July 2024 house fire in Rochester that killed Malakai Stovall, according to prosecutors and the boy”s family, per local ABC affiliate WHAM.
Flames ripped through Stovall’s home on July 28 at around 2 a.m. after Hendrix and her sister, Tiakayla Hendrix, 21, and a third defendant, Roy Chambers, pulled up to the residence to set it on fire as retaliation for an alleged attack on the Hendrixes’ father earlier in the day, prosecutors say. The trio thought a person involved in the alleged attack lived there, per WHAM.
Taquida Hendrix allegedly poured gasoline on the two-story house and set it ablaze while Tiakayla Hendrix and Chambers kept a lookout, according to the pair. Malakai was severely injured in the fire and died several days later at a local hospital.
“My baby was up there [in the house] for 21 minutes with no heartbeat,” Malakai’s mother, Brianna Akers, told WHAM on July 31.
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Tiakayla Hendrix and Chambers were each charged with murder and arson, but they agreed to plea deals last month on the arson charge in exchange for their testimony against Taquida Hendrix, according to prosecutors. Tiakayla Hendrix was accused of purchasing the lighter used to spark the fire, but she did not take part in setting it.
According to her lawyer, “She certainly did not know there was a child inside that building at the time,” per WHAM. “She had no role in actually setting the fire itself,” the lawyer said.
Karen Mitchell, Malakai’s grandmother, told local media outlets that the family was shocked by the plea deals and expected all three individuals to go on trial.
“I just cried. I mean, it’s very bittersweet,” Mitchell told WHAM. “I want them to understand it wasn’t just, you know, this 5-year-old, or this little boy, who died in a fire; he was a little boy who lived, and he loved life.”
Mitchell added, “These people were the lookouts to make sure no one caught them setting a fire that ended my grandson’s life.”
Taquida Hendrix is currently locked up at the Monroe County Jail as her trial unfolds. Tiakayla Hendrix and Chambers are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29.
