Hillsborough woman diagnosed with schizophrenia apologizes for mom’s murder
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Woman sentenced to prison for 2023 Orange County, NC, murder
- Court orders mental health treatment after diagnosis of schizophrenia.
- Family members testify to loss, support, and calls for reflection and repentance.
A young Hillsborough woman apologized to her family Tuesday after pleading guilty to killing her mother in 2023 while suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness.
Jaydah Westmoreland, 21, was sentenced to 16 to 22 years in prison for the second-degree murder of her 40-year-old mother, Delila Westmoreland, and stealing her car.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour also ordered Westmoreland to receive mental health treatment and education while in prison.
Westmoreland has accepted responsibility for her mother’s murder, Chief Public Defender Woodrena Baker-Harrell said before Westmoreland spoke. She thanked her family “for the phone calls, money and packages, and most of all for your love.”
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my beautiful mom. I miss her so bad, in more ways than one,” Westmoreland said. “Every day, I have to remind myself that she is a part of me and a part of my brothers as well. Although it may be difficult, I pray that y’all can find it in your hearts to forgive me for my actions.”
Brothers grew concerned, called police
Westmoreland’s younger brothers, then 17, were key witnesses to what happened the day that Westmoreland killed her mother, Orange County Assistant District Attorney Kelley Gauger said.
They were staying with their father in Durham on Aug. 14 and told police that Westmoreland arrived that morning, after taking an Uber, to show them a long gun she had recently gotten. Westmoreland stayed for about an hour, and after calling their mother, the brothers said they left to get food from McDonald’s to take to her.
They returned to the Durham house before heading to Hillsborough and found Westmoreland at the house with their mother’s car and their 2-year-old brother, who was not hurt. It was unusual for Westmoreland to have her mother’s car, Gauger said. She told her brothers to say “mom is in the bathroom” if anyone asked, Gauger said.
They were able to get the car keys and went to Hillsborough to check on their mother, Gauger said, finding the door to her South Nash Street apartment unlocked. Delila Westmoreland was on the bedroom floor with “blood pooled around her torso and behind her head,” she said.
Police later found multiple .22-caliber shell casings and a purse containing a box of ammunition in the apartment, Gauger said. They also found blood on Westmoreland’s clothing and in her mother’s car, she said.
Westmoreland was arrested at the Durham home, where police also recovered a black Savage 22-caliber rifle that had a full magazine, Gauger said.
Schizophrenia changed her personality
Baker-Harrell, the public defender, said she immediately noticed something was wrong with Westmoreland when she met her. Others also noticed it, including jail staff and a social worker intern, she said. An expert later evaluated her and found that she had schizophrenia.
Westmoreland’s case is a “prime example of why we have to take mental health seriously,” Baker-Harrell said.
Westmoreland’s family said she was “a cheerful … sweet, caring, loving person,” Baker-Harrell said, but around April 2023, they began to see changes. Westmoreland would lock herself in the bathroom for hours, wearing her headphones and isolating from others, and she wouldn’t speak, she said.
When Westmoreland started thinking her father had assaulted her, she told her mother, who didn’t believe her, Baker-Harrell said.
“She was afraid to tell people, but she had been hearing voices for pretty much the majority of her life,” Baker-Harrell said. “She didn’t want people to think that she was crazy, so she didn’t tell them, and for a while, Jaydah was able to control the voices and not have the voices control her.”
Since starting medication, Westmoreland has been completely different, she said.
Family shares grief, love for Jaydah
Over a dozen family members were in court Tuesday or attended the hearing virtually. Those who addressed the court said it’s been difficult to deal with the loss of Delila Westmoreland, especially knowing that her daughter killed her.
But they still love Westmoreland and will support her while she’s in prison and once she gets out, they said.
Delila Westmoreland’s sister Nikita wrote a letter to her niece that Gauger read in court while Nikita, who did not share her last name, watched online.
“I never imagined I would have to write a letter like this,” Nikita said in the statement.
Delila Westmoreland would send text messages encouraging them to pray for each other, to read their Bibles and to “get closer to God,” Nikita said. She would share recipes on social media, tagging Nikita, and providing words “that uplifted me,” she said.
“I feel so many emotions — hurt, sadness and deep confusion,” she said. “This isn’t fair. She deserved to grow old.”
Calling Westmoreland a “sweet, quiet, beautiful [girl],” Nikita said she has now “caused irreparable damage.” She urged her niece to reflect on her actions and to “repent.”
“I can’t hate you. I don’t hate you. I’ll always love you, but I cannot condone what you have done,” Nikita said. “Taking a life is the ultimate wrong.”
Westmoreland’s father, who appeared in person, told the court, “It’s a hard day.”
“It wasn’t Jaydah,” said Justin Westmoreland, who was out of town when his ex-wife was murdered and later told police that his daughter had threatened to kill him in 2022.
“We were trying to get her help, and we saw signs that it wasn’t her,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate situation. I lost a good friend and now my daughter, but we love you, Jaydah.”
