Man sentenced to death for the double murder of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge, Cheryl Caracuzzo on Thursday sentenced Marlin Joseph for the Dec. 28, 2017, murders of Kaladaa Crowell, 36, and her 11-year-old daughter, Kyra Inglett.

“There can be nothing more terrifying for a child than knowing that someone has just shot their mother multiple times and now was coming after them,” Caracuzzo said. “There is no doubt that this panic-stricken little girl experienced a level of terror that no child or no one should ever have to endure.”

In February, a jury of six men and six women found Joseph guilty and unanimously  recommended capital punishment.

On Dec. 28, 2017, police say Joseph shot Kaladaa Crowell, 36, several times at a home their families shared on Third Street in West Palm Beach after a heated argument about her daughter’s attitude. As she pleaded for help, he shot her again in the head.

Investigators also revealed that he chased her 11-year-old daughter, Kyra Inglett, out of the home as she fled and shot her five times, including three times in the head.

Joseph, 29, received the death penalty for both murders, and 15 years in prison for the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, court records show.

After the sentence was imposed, the 29-year-old Jospeh looked back at his family in silence. 

Once Caracuzzo left her bench, Crowell’s mother, Lajunia Crowell, wailed while grabbing onto her husband, Kenneth.

Outside the courtroom, Crowell’s mother, Lajunia Crowell thanked prosecutors Adrienne Ellis, Richard Clausi Jr. and Jo Wilensky, the city of West Palm Beach and others including Kyra’s Girl Scout troop and Kaladaa’s college, Bethune-Cookman University.

“All of the support you’ve given to our family over these last three years, it helped us to get through it,” she said, her voice still shaking.