Teen Charged in Boyfriend’s Fatal Stabbing During Alleged Horseplay Lacking Pepper Spray

On Monday, a teenager from Florida confessed to fatally stabbing her boyfriend just days before Christmas during what she described as a playful interaction involving a knife in a parking garage.

Jahara Malik, 18, accepted a plea deal for manslaughter using a deadly weapon in connection with the death of 17-year-old Yahkeim Lollar in Miami. Her sentencing is scheduled for April 13.

“I want the maximum sentence,” expressed Lollar’s mother, Nathalie Jean, to NBC Miami affiliate WTVJ. “That is my wish—a life for a life. She took my son’s life for no valid reason. She took his life because he was truthful with her about not wanting to continue their relationship. Her inability to comprehend her actions, her behavior, and her sense of entitlement is exactly why he chose to part ways with her.”

As per an arrest report accessed by Law&Crime, Miami police were alerted around 11 p.m. on December 20, 2024, regarding a stabbing incident in the parking garage of Lollar’s residence located at the 6100 block of Northwest Sixth Court. Lollar was transported to a hospital by paramedics, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

The report mentions that Malik, then 17, planned to go shopping with a friend on the day of the incident. Before leaving, she searched for her usual pepper spray for safety but, unable to locate it, opted to carry a knife instead. Following her shopping trip, she met Lollar in the parking garage. During what was described as “horseplay,” she inadvertently stabbed him in the chest.

Jean never bought the horseplaying argument.

“Her whole defense is horseplaying. Who horseplays with a knife? You [learn] as a kid that you don’t play with sharp objects, right?” she told WTVJ after a bond hearing last year.

As Law&Crime previously reported, surveillance video showed Malik dropping the knife in the parking garage. A portion of Malik’s statement to police was redacted from the affidavit. A medical examiner deemed the death a homicide a few weeks after the stabbing.

Malik’s attorney noted that the teen stayed behind to render aid after the stabbing. Malik has not been arrested before this incident, the lawyer said. The attorney told CBS affiliate WFOR that the stabbing was not intentional.

The victim’s father, Darveed Lollar, said the killing didn’t have to happen.

“By somebody just playing, they took my boy’s life,” he told ABC affiliate WPLG. “That’s what they said. They [were] playing.”

The family has been frustrated that it took so long to put Malik behind bars, despite knowing she was the one responsible for the homicide.

“They couldn’t find something to charge her with the night of, when there was no question as to what happened or who [did] this, so I mean it’s, right now, it’s a little bittersweet,” Darveed Lollar told WTVJ.