Husband guilty of first-degree murder

Jury thinks he planned his wife's stabbing death

RALEIGH -- This week brought a bit of celebration for Matthias and Naja Wilson, as their fourth and second birthdays, respectively, were observed at their day care.

But on Thursday, their father, Jakiem Wilson, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2007 stabbing of their mother, Nneka.

A Wake County jury spent more than 14 hours over three days trying to decide whether Jakiem Wilson plotted to kill his wife in the family's Wendell-area home, or whether he snapped in a sudden fit of anger, as his defense attorneys had argued in hopes of getting a lesser conviction of second-degree murder.

Wilson, 24, had little reaction to the first-degree murder conviction, which now means he'll be sentenced either to life in prison or to death. The sentencing phase of the trial is expected to begin today.

Nneka Wilson's family members rejoiced at the verdict. Her stepfather, James Hill, yelled "Hallelujah!" when he was told, outside the courtroom door, about the verdict.

"You just don't think that anyone would kill your child," said Claudette Hill, Nneka Wilson's mother. "Someone who you've accepted into your home, fed meals and accepted as your son."

Jakiem Wilson's younger sister ran out of the courtroom to a bathroom after the verdict, where she could be heard crying.

Nneka Wilson, 24, a home health care aide who was the family's main breadwinner, was stabbed as she stepped out of the shower Feb. 12, 2007. Matthias, then 2, and Naja, a few months old, were sleeping nearby in their bedrooms during the attack.

Jakiem Wilson later told a friend and fellow gang member that his wife nagged him and he didn't want to pay her child support if they ended their rocky marriage. Wilson enlisted two friends to come to the house after the slaying to make it look as if a rival gang member killed her and wrote a threatening message with a rag dipped in her blood.

"Now we can move on and be there for the children," Wanda Gilbert-Coker, a cousin of Nneka Wilson, said after the verdict.

In closing arguments, Hoyt Tessener, one of Wilson's two attorneys, told jurors that his client was thinking of his children when he agreed to terminate his parental rights and allow Nneka Wilson's mother and stepfather to adopt the two youngsters days after Wilson was killed.

But Wake Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Davis asked why, if Wilson was thinking of his children, he stabbed his wife and left her naked and bleeding on the kitchen floor with her children sleeping nearby.

Also, Davis asked, why did Wilson spend five hours away from the house, leaving the children alone with the body? Wilson had gone to Selma to help establish an alibi.

Wilson spent most of the trial with his head down, looking at the table in front of him, with occasional glances at testifying witnesses.

The trial took a heavy toll on the family of Nneka Wilson, who grew up in the Raleigh area and attended Enloe High School. When testimony included graphic details, her mother and stepfather sometimes left the courtroom. Many of the details were unknown to them before the trial.

"He didn't have to kill our baby," Gilbert-Coker said. "He could have just left her."