The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

The family of Breanna Mackey, will never see her face or hear her voice again in this life. Her hugs, her smell, her big personality are now confined to a small coffin, six feet below the surface of the earth.

At around 5.48pm on January 25, 2018, just a day after Breanna’s 19th birthday, she was attacked while walking to a friend’s house to deliver a piece of birthday cake. Her assailants, or friends as she thought they were, took her life over a cracked cell phone - kicking, stomping and stabbing her repeatedly.

Breanna’s sister, Latisha Woodside, held her sister’s blood-soaked body in her arms and watched her eyes roll back several times, as she warded off imminent death and asked for her mother’s presence. Breanna died at the hospital at 8:28 pm that day, leaving behind a four-year-old child.

Six females - Thea Williams, Zaria Burrows (pregnant at the time), Dervinique Edwards, Davanya Laws, along with two juveniles - were charged with Breanna’s death. Thea Williams, the girl who did the actual stabbing received 25 years, while Edwards and Burrows received 28-year sentences. Lawes and the juveniles got off on time served in jail.

Just last week, Edwards and Burrows were the last of the six to be sentenced.

Three years later, the family of Breanna Mackey are still grappling with the tragedy of her death. Speaking with The Tribune, last week, her sister Latisha remembers her warmly.

“My sister, she was a very nice person,” Latisha said. “She was a free spirit. She was very free handed. She would give people her very last. If someone is in need and she has $5 and they come to her and say they need something she would give them that $5.

“She was very energetic. Everywhere she went, people fell in love with her because they loved her spirit and the type of person she was. She was a very happy soul. She was working at a bar and doing hair. She was a sweet, kind soul. If she was mad with you today, she would come right back to you and make you laugh again. She never held grudges.”

Breanna became the target of her friends when one asked her to retrieve a cell phone from a nearby bag. The phone, fell and the screen was cracked and the group of girls felt Breanna was responsible for repairing it at the cost of $100. When Breanna revealed she had no money to fix it, tempers flared and the situation escalated.

On that fateful night as she innocently took that piece of cake to a friend the group of girls, jumped out of a car and chased her as she tried to run away. She fell, they caught up with her and subsequently ended her life.

Sadly, that is the story Brianna’s now seven-year-old daughter will hear whenever the tale is told of her mother’s final hours. She, too, is having a hard time dealing with her mother’s death.

“Breanna’s daughter is seven-years old,” Latisha continued. “Her name is Brenae Mackey. She lives with Breanna’s father and his wife. It’s very hard for her daughter because she is always asking how come her cousins have their mother and she doesn’t have hers.

“She is always asking why they took her mommy away from her. It’s hard on her. She sits down and she cries and it hurts us to see her like that. Her aunt told us that she needs counselling as she is still traumatized by her mother’s death.”

Asked how she and her family fared since her sister’s death, the response from Latisha was grim.

“I haven’t been the same at all since they took my sister’s life over stupidity,” she said. “Every day I think about my sister. I think about the time we spent with each other and the times she made me laugh. Looking at her pictures ... I can barely look at them because I cry every time I see them.

“I constantly reminisce about the time when they took her life and sometimes I just stay away from everyone and lock myself away and think about my sister. I think about her all the time, like if she was still here how things would have been.

“Breanna was the life of our family. She was only 19 years old! It hurts so much because she got killed on my son’s birthday. So when I try to celebrate his birthday I am celebrating her death. I can’t even celebrate at all.

“This is all very painful. With me, I can’t see her or hear her voice anymore. She always told people that I am her twin and her role model. It’s just like a wound that will never heal.”

Unfortunately Breanna’s family did not participate in any form of counselling after her murder. Breanna, being the last of 13 children, was her mother’s baby. For this reason, especially, her mother is struggling with her demise.

“Our family didn’t do any counselling,” Latisha admitted. “When the ordeal gets to my mom she walks and talks to herself about it. Sometimes she sits down in her bathroom or bedroom alone and you could hear her saying how they took her baby’s life. It is very painful for a mother to lose her child and by a senseless killing. It’s not easy!

“My mom had 13 kids and Breanna was the last one. She was the baby! She was killed the day after her birthday. Her birthday was January 24 and she was killed January 25. She didn’t even get to live her life. This is so sad and she died by the hands of her so called friends.”

Asked about the recent sentencing of her sister’s assailants, Latisha said the family is mostly pleased with it, however further in the conversation, she shared that the torment of her sister’s death does not end, but instead continues on with the family of those who killed her.

“We are very pleased with the time they got,” he said. “My sister, Breanna, can rest properly now because justice has been served and we the family can get some kind of closure. Trust me, it’s not easy losing a loved one especially how she got taken away by the hands of her so called friends.

“We wish they could have gotten more, but the judge had to go by the rules of the court. So we are very pleased.

“We attended the trial. Me, my sisters Nafatera Brown and Tonia Sturrup and all the family used to be out there to the trial. But the other girls’ family used to be out there picking problems with us. So it wasn’t easy with us going out there because they acted like we were the suspects. We really were the victim’s family. The family of the deceased.”

Latisha went on to speak of her family feeling threatened and uncomfortable at court while seeking justice for her sister.

“They (the assailants’ families) treated us like we were the ones who murdered someone in their family,” she continued. “The police gave us no justice out there, either. The police at court told us to go the next way when those families start to carry on. But we are not the ones that should have to go the next way. It was our loved one who was snatched away by these people.

“Those people acted like we did something wrong. Our loved one is in the grave. We cannot see or hear from her any more. And, the ones who took my sister’s life, their families still can see them. After the trial they are still trying to bother us. The ones that are free, when my mom and my kids and I are walking they try to bother us. I feel very threatened.

“All we wanted was justice for my sister. When we used to party, when we go to a club someone would call them and let them know where we are, they would come there picking problems with us. We would just leave and go to another club. Then they would follow us there as well. They are looking for problems.”

Latisha reflected on her response about the verdict and decided that all of the girls involved with her sister’s murder should have received the same sentence.

“They are already involved in taking my little sister’s life,” she said. “I feel like the two of the girls who are out here free, they also took part in my sister’s death and all of them should have gotten the same amount of time. The two years, time served, that those two girls got is not pleasing at all.

“All of them did the crime together and all of them should do the time together. We, the family, is not pleased at the time that those two girls got and they are free. They are troublesome and like to bother us. They are threatening us.”

Although all of her assailants have served or are serving time for causing her death, Breanna’s mother has still lost her baby and Breanna’s daughter still has no mother.

At the end of the day has justice really been served?