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 New York woman who set the wrong house on fire in retaliation for an alleged attack on her dad, killing a 5-year-old boy who was asleep inside, was found guilty Thursday of murder and arson.
It took Monroe County jurors just 30 minutes — 15 on Wednesday and 15 on Thursday — to convict Taquida Hendrix, 31, of second-degree murder and first-degree arson for the July 2024 house fire in Rochester that took Malakai Stovall”s life, according to local NBC affiliate WHEC.
“It does make me feel a little bit better than I thought it would,” Malakai’s mother, Brianna Akers, told WHEC. “At least be able to hear and see the same thing I did and that is guilty of murder and arson and everything she was charged of.”
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Hendrix reportedly showed no emotion as the verdict was read Thursday following the brief deliberation by jurors, per WHEC. Her own sister, Tiakayla Hendrix, 21, testified against the woman during her trial last week after accepting a plea deal for her involvement, which included riding with Taquida Hendrix to Malakai’s home. A third defendant, Roy Chambers, was with the siblings and wanted to help them get revenge for an alleged attack on the Hendrixes’ father earlier in the day, prosecutors said.
The trio thought a person involved in the alleged attack lived at Malakai’s home, but it turned out they had the wrong house.
“The sister of the defendant confirmed our theory of this case, and that is that the defendant is the one who set this fire,” said Assistant District Attorney Kevin Sunderland during Taquida Hendrix’s trial, according to local NBC affiliate WHAM. “She poured the liquid that was ignited outside of the home of the victim, and she’s the reason why this happened,” Sunderland said.
Flames ripped through Stovall’s house on July 28 at around 2 a.m. after Taquida Hendriz poured gasoline on the two-story residence and set it ablaze. Tiakayla Hendrix and Chambers kept a lookout, according to prosecutors. Malakai, who was tucked into bed on the second floor, 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,” Akers, told WHAM on July 31.
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.”
