Mims stole lottery tickets after the murder.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: An aspiring entertainer in Detroit has been sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Indian American convenience store clerk D.K. Chaudhari in Dalton, Ga.
A Whitfield County Superior Court jury found Skyy Mims, 21, guilty on May 1 on 11 different charges, including five for the murder of 37-year-old Dahyabhai Kalidas “D.K.” Chaudhari in March 2014 at the Kanku Hi-Tech convenience store.
Prosecutors say Mims was obsessed with winning the lottery, and police said say she stole more than 50 tickets and cash after the murder. A DNA expert testified that Mims’ DNA was found on latex gloves and red duct tape found at the scene, according to local NBC affiliate WRCB.
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She was sentenced for charges of murder, armed robbery, second-degree burglary, possession of a firearm/knife during commission of a crime and theft by bringing stolen property into state, according to the Daily Citizen, a Dalton-based publication.
During the trial, Mims’ attorney, Carla Marable, approached the case from a mental illness angle and lobbied for the option of parole, which Judge Jack Partain did not grant.
Marable called Mims’ father, Mario, to the stand, who said his grandmother, father and two cousins suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and Mims’ mother had bipolar disorder.
Mims’ father said he put his daughter in a mental hospital while under questioning from both the prosecution and defense, but stated she was able to check herself out and then left her home in Detroit, going south in hopes catalyzing a career in hip-hop.
“She kind of slipped out of our hands,” he said. “I was always in pursuit of (putting her in a mental hospital) because I knew she was having problems.”
District Attorney Bert Poston stated the mental health factor was considered by the state before the case even began.
“We know that based on the charges, that this case had the potential of ending in the death penalty,” Poston said. “We made the decision prior to the arraignment that we would not seek the death penalty for essentially the same reasons Ms. Marable has urged in mitigation today.”