A 20-year-old woman has been charged with murder after she was caught on camera punching a 55-year-old woman to the ground over a stolen necklace in Miami Beach.
Zaria Liana Williams was arrested after a video recorded on her cell phone showed her running after Anna Mathis and brutally beating her in the middle of the street.
Police said Williams, Mathis and a third woman were sitting at the intersection of 5th Street and Ocean Drive when Mathis allegedly “snatched” the necklace from the third woman.
As the jewel thief, who was behaving “erratically,” ran away with the necklace, Williams quickly got to his feet and began chasing Mathis, according to the arrest report.
Zaria Liana Williams, 20 (pictured), was arrested after cellphone video showed her running up to and brutally beating 55-year-old Anna Mathis in the middle of the street.
Witnesses later told investigators that when both women stopped, the defendant adopted a “fighting stance” just before she began throwing punches.
Video footage taken from multiple angles shows the suspect straddling the victim and continuing to punch her repeatedly.
Just before officers arrived at the scene, a good Samaritan intervened and pushed Williams, according to the arrest report.
“This girl was on top of her and hitting her like she was a stick,” said a witness. NBC6‘I work at TGI Friday’s and when I left she was on top of her beating her up.’
Video footage taken from multiple angles shows the suspect straddling the victim and repeatedly punching her.
Officials later clarified that Mathis never actually took the necklace, but that the third woman “later found it inside the sports shirt she was wearing.”
According to WSVN-TV, both Williams and Mathis were homeless and were already known to police.
Mathis, who had suffered a neck injury and major brain bleeding, was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center where he was intubated.
But doctors soon declared the victim brain dead and said there was no chance of recovery.
Just before officers arrived at the scene, a good Samaritan intervened and pushed Williams, according to the arrest report.
When a patient is declared brain dead, he or she is legally considered deceased.
Williams was initially charged with aggravated assault, but was later charged with second-degree murder when Mathis was declared brain dead.
The defendant is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Her bond on the second-degree murder charge was listed in jail records as “to be set.” It had initially been set at $1 million when she was charged with aggravated assault.
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