Nye’tazia Hicks was a 17-year-old mother from Portsmouth, Virginia, who was found shot along a cart path in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery on the night of July 27, 2019. Police concluded she had been killed elsewhere and moved to the cemetery; the fatal gunshot struck her upper body and pierced her lungs and smaller blood vessels.

Investigators traced events back to an apartment on Darren Circle in the Charlestowne Apartments. Nye’tazia had been babysitting at the home. According to testimony, a 14-year-old boy, Domonique White, found an unsecured gun and began handling it; Nye’tazia tried to take the weapon from him and it discharged, striking her in the chest. White testified he attempted to call 911 and apply pressure, but Simone Latrea Worrell allegedly took the phone and stopped the call. Worrell then transported Nye’tazia’s body to the cemetery and abandoned it.

A Portsmouth jury found Simone Worrell guilty of felony murder, felony child abuse and neglect, and concealment of a dead body in February 2026; she was awaiting sentencing. Does anyone have information about Nye’tazia’s last hours at the Charlestowne Apartments or about the unsecured gun mentioned in the case?