BLACK AND MISSING, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: FOUND DEAD – JAMAICA SMITH

Found Dead: Jamaica Smith blackandmissing | December 12, 2009 at 4:51 pm |

The search for a missing Rosedale mother who vanished after dropping her only daughter off at school ended violently after the father of her child strangled her to death and abandoned her body in a Long Island street, police said.

Marvon Jemmott, 35, of 231 St. in Rosedale, was awaiting arraignment in First District Court in Hempstead, L.I., Wednesday afternoon on a second-degree murder charge in the death of his ex-girlfriend Jamaica Smith, Nassau County police said. Smith, 36, was reported missing from her home the day before Thanksgiving and her body was found Monday morning outside an abandoned home on Krull Street in Uniondale, L.I., according to police.

Smith’s older sister, Vernita Vereen, said she and her kin had prayed that the single mother would be found alive and held onto their hope alive even when reports surfaced that she was killed in Long Island.

“We’re going to identify a body right and see if it’s her. We hope it isn’t,” Vereen said Tuesday just hours before she went to confirm the death with the authorities.

A Nassau meter agent spotted the body on the curb of the street around 8:45 a.m. Monday, according to police. The body was in front of an unoccupied home, police said.

The Nassau County Medical Examiner’s office said Smith was strangled to death. Her family knew that her disappearance the day before Thanksgiving was suspicious, according to Vereen.

Smith, who recently moved back to Rosedale from Tennessee and was living with her niece, never left for long without informing her close friends or relatives since she has been raising her young daughter by herself, according to Vereen.

“She wouldn’t leave without her daughter, she wouldn’t leave her family,” Vereen said.

The sibling said Smith was last seen dropping off her daughter at PS 156 in Laurelton. Smith was a private beautician who worked at her clients’ homes, according to Vereen.

Police did not name a motive for the killing.

In a statement released late Tuesday, City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) offered his condolences to the family, who came to his office for help when Smith was missing.

“Like many community members who joined their efforts to find Jamaica, I am terribly disappointed with this outcome,” he said.

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ROSEDALE MAN SENTENCED FOR KILLING OF JAMAICA SMITH

By Ivan Pereira

October 12, 2011

The Rosedale man who tried to cover up the murder of his child’s mother will be spending a long time behind bars.

A Nassau Supreme Court judge sentenced Marvon Jemmott, 37, to 20 years to life in prison May 18 for the 2009 killing of his estranged girlfriend, Jamaica Smith, Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice said.

Jemmott and Smith, 36, had argued over his lack of child support for their then-6-year-old and he not only strangled her to death and dumped her body in Long Island, but went to the media and reported her missing, the DA said.

Photos courtesy of Times Ledger.

“This defendant left his child without a mother, all over child support payments he wasn’t making in the first place,” Rice said in a statement. “We are pleased that today’s sentence ensures that Mr. Jemmott will pay a heavy price for this vicious crime.”

The incident took place right before Thanksgiving when Smith, who had moved back to Rosedale with her daughter after living in Tennessee, met with Jemmott, the DA said.

After strangling her to death, he placed her body in an abandoned home in Uniondale, L.I., according to Rice.

Smith’s family reported her missing and said the last time they saw her was when she dropped off her daughter at her school in Laurelton. For days the family urged anyone with information to come to their aid and got help from the police and elected officials.

Jemmott joined her family with the search and even gave a teary-eyed interview with Channel 11 news ,saying how much he loved Smith.

After Smith’s body was discovered Dec. 7, 2009, investigators revealed his pleas were a ruse. Jemmott was taken into custody a day later and charged with her murder.

He pleaded guilty to murder in March in exchange for last week’s sentence.

Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.

Updated 10:52 am, October 12, 2011

©2011 Community News Group

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