After allegedly beating a lady to death for taking another women’s jewelry close to Ocean Drive, Miami Beach police have charged a 20-year-old woman with second-degree murder.
Zaria Liana Williams was first detained by police on an aggravated battery charge early on Thursday morning, hours after the incident. Williams was due to appear in Miami-Dade court on Monday to face an increased charge in light of the victim’s death.
The “chaotic” incident occurred on Wednesday shortly before 11 p.m. along Fifth Street and Ocean Drive, according to an arrest report from the police.
According to the police, the victim “snatched” the necklace of the other woman when she, Williams, and the other woman were seated at the crossroads.
According to the report, Williams became enraged and pursued the victim, who was not publicly recognized by the police, because of the victim’s “erratic” behavior.
As per the report, the other woman “later found it inside of the sports top she was wearing,” suggesting that the victim never did take the necklace.
However, Williams—whom witnesses named as the aggressor—punched the woman many times, according to the police.
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According to the police complaint, Williams is seen beating the woman seven times after she stopped responding on surveillance and cellphone footage.
Williams was pinning the victim down when a guy allegedly intervened and shoved her away, causing the victim to turn around and leave.
The woman suffered “fractured ribs, a fractured sternum, a catastrophic brain bleed and she was intubated and not breathing on her own,” a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital told authorities on Thursday, according to the report.
The woman was deemed brain dead by the physicians two days later, with little possibility of recovery.
Williams, who is homeless, was charged with aggravated violence and placed under arrest at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $1 million bond.
According to jail records, her bond for the second-degree murder accusation was marked as “to be set.”
