An Orange County judge on Tuesday sentenced a Hillsborough woman to 16 to 22 years in prison for the 2023 killing of her mother, closing a case that has torn through one local family and raised questions about mental health and crime. In court, she apologized, asked relatives for forgiveness, and, according to defense and court records, was described as having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The hearing took place in Orange County Superior Court in Hillsborough.
Plea and sentence
The defendant, 19-year-old Jaydah Westmoreland, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and formally accepted responsibility for her mother’s death. Judge Allen Baddour handed down a prison term of 16 to 22 years and ordered that Westmoreland receive mental health treatment and educational programming while in custody, according to The News & Observer.
How investigators say the killing unfolded
On Aug. 14, 2023, Hillsborough police went to an apartment in the Bellevue Mill complex on South Nash Street for a welfare check. Inside, officers found 41-year-old Delila Westmoreland dead from multiple gunshot wounds, and the family’s 2-year-old child missing, according to WRAL. The toddler was later located safe in Durham.
Investigators reported finding multiple .22-caliber shell casings and a purse with a box of ammunition in the apartment, and later seized a black Savage .22-caliber rifle with a full magazine from the Durham home where Jaydah was arrested, WRAL reported. Authorities also said bullets had gone through a wall into a neighboring unit, but no one else was inside that apartment at the time.
Family and courtroom remarks
Relatives told the court they had been trying for some time to get help for Jaydah. Her father, Justin Westmoreland, said he believed his daughter “was not herself,” according to reporting. Speaking directly to the judge, Jaydah said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my beautiful mom. I miss her so bad, in more ways than one,” according to The News & Observer.
Her attorney told the court that Jaydah had accepted responsibility and expressed remorse. Chief public defender Woodrena Baker-Harrell asked the judge to weigh Westmoreland’s mental health diagnosis when considering both the length of the sentence and the treatment she will receive in state custody, The News & Observer reported…