Court docs: Fatal stabbing of Kaelia Minor happened after fight over cellphone

WASHINGTON - An 18-year-old woman charged in the deadly stabbing of a Coolidge High School student made her first court appearance in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday afternoon after her arrest.

Kyla Jones was charged with second-degree murder while armed for the death of 17-year-old Kaelia Minor and she is being held without bond.

According to charging documents, Jones told detectives she had fought previously with Minor, and that she had a steak knife on her lap because she feared for her safety when she was around Minor. Jones allegedly stabbed Minor in the chest after getting off a Metrobus at Kansas Avenue and Emerson Street in Northwest D.C.

A witness to the incident said Minor walked from the rear of the bus to the front and began arguing with Jones. One of the witnesses observed the knife that Jones was holding. Charging documents state that a witness was trying to separate the teenagers when the victim took the suspect's cellphone and then ran off of the bus.

Jones and Minor began fighting outside of the bus. As the two exchanged punches, Jones was still holding the knife, according to witnesses. Jones told police that when she realized she had stabbed Minor, she did not believe she was seriously injured.

Another witness described seeing Jones kick and turn Minor, who was lying on the ground. While Minor was on the ground, a witness reported hearing Jones say, "Where's my phone?" A witness also heard Jones say "I don't give a **** what happens to her. I don't give a **** if I stabbed her. I want my ******* phone." Once Jones found her phone, witnesses saw her leave the scene on the sidewalk heading northbound on 5th Street.

Jones told police that while she was in Southwest D.C. she learned that Minor had died and that she called her parents to go with her to the police station to turn herself in.

Minor was a senior student and the captain of the dance team at Coolidge High School. Docia Proctor told FOX 5 that her daughter was preparing to go to college in Atlanta and had just filled out her financial aid paperwork hours before being killed.

"She was just taken too soon," said Proctor. "She was supposed to take her SAT [exam] Wednesday for college. She was supposed to graduate next year in June. She was supposed to take her school class pictures next month. No parent should have to bury their child. Just tragic for both me and the person who did this [and her family] because it's two losses here. Nobody should have to go through this."

Minor's mother also said she forgives her daughter's killer "because God's got this."