A woman accused of fatally stabbing a Staten Island mother during a massive brawl outside a housing project declared her innocence on a podcast, saying the victim “wasn’t being a real mom” before she surrendered to police.
On Monday morning, 25-year-old Jasmin Thompson turned herself in at the NYPD’s 120th Precinct, where she was charged with second-degree murder in the January 7 killing of 43-year-old Jennira Roundtree.
The altercation unfolded outside Roundtree’s home at the NYCHA West Brighton Houses on Henderson Avenue near Alaska Street, as per reports.
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Authorities say Roundtree’s death stemmed from a social media dispute.
However, during her appearance on LFTG Radio with host Elliott Carterr, Thompson insisted she did not stab the New York City mother and only picked up the bloody knife because she was afraid.
“The mom’s already on the floor. So how y’all saying I did it?” Thompson told Carterr as she described a video of the fight. “I picked it up. I was scared for my life.”
Sources say that Roundtree entered the fight to defend her young daughter but unfortunately met with her demise.
Thompson’s attorney, Mario Gallucci, disregarded claims that Roundtree was just defending her child and suggested that she had provoked the conflict.
“Nobody deserves to die, but Ms. Roundtree certainly didn’t come into this with clean hands,” Gallucci told The New York Post, comparing the conflict to a “modern-day Hatfields and McCoys.”
“Roundtree and a group of her followers had attacked Ms. Thompson’s sister earlier in the day and jumped another one of her friends,” he added. “She started the altercation, continued the altercation, and my client is looking at using justification as a defense.”
A 30-year-old neighbor however told The Daily News that the fight began when a group of girls confronted Roundtree’s young daughter.
Roundtree’s friends initially called the girl’s older sister for help, yet the mother chose to intervene.
The neighbor said she couldn’t get a clear picture of the fight but revealed she saw Roundtree being carried away by police.
“When they carried her, I saw she had a lot of blood,” the neighbor said. “I heard her say, ‘I can’t breathe!’ That’s the only thing she said.”
Roundtree was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center for treatment and was later pronounced dead.
Thompson has a history of six prior arrests which include multiple assault charges. However, she maintained her innocence on the podcast, arguing that she acted out of fear and that Roundtree’s behavior was inappropriate for a parent.
“She wasn’t being a mom, a real mom,” Thompson said of Roundtree. “I’m a mom. I’m gonna say, ‘Hey, what happened? What happened with my kids?’ I’m not straight springing golf sticks at people’s kids.”
The woman accused of stabbing the NYC mother also denied intentionally killing Roundtree and expressed sympathy for the victim’s family.
“I’m not a killer,” she said. “I would never want to kill nobody. I’m not a killer. I have kids too. That lady was a mom. She got four kids. Yeah, nothing was planned, nothing was premeditated.”
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There are ongoing investigations into the fatal stabbing and many will be keeping close tabs on the matter to see how it all unfolds in the coming days.
