Woman Kills Lincoln University Student With Kitchen Knife: Prosecutor

WEST CHESTER, PA —A Mount Airy woman drove to Lincoln University in Lower Oxford Township armed with a kitchen knife and fatally stabbed a student in the neck on Feb. 16, 2022, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Nydira Smith is on trial in the Chester County Justice Center on first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a student and wounding of two others after a fight broke out in a dormitory. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Justin Roberts said in his opening statement that a video recording shows Smith stabbing the victim, Jawine Evans, 21, a senior who was due to graduate in May of 2022, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The video also showed the defendant plunging a knife into Evans’ neck, after which Evans staggers backward with a traumatic arterial bleed from his neck.

Smith, who is the sister of a student involved in the fight, is also accused of wounding Clifton Walker, 22, and Eric Dickerson, also 22, during a brawl after 9 p.m.

Smith’s attorney, Vince DiFabio, countered in his opening statement that Smith was acting in self-defense to protect her brother, Malik Stevens, who called her earlier in the day, asking her to pick him up because he was going to get beaten up.

The trial before Chester County Judge Nicole Forzato is expected to last two weeks.

Evans was pronounced dead at the scene. He died of a stab wound to the neck, according to an autopsy conducted at Chester County Hospital. Walker and Dickerson were taken to Christiana Hospital, Wilmington, where they were treated and released.

Chester County detectives said the stabbing occurred in the first-floor hallway of the learning center’s south wing, which had blood spattered on the floor, walls, and doorways.

Smith is being held in Chester County Prison without bail.