A Broward County jury delivered a verdict this month in a case that began with a flight from New York and ended with a fatal confrontation in a quiet Florida apartment complex. On Oct. 15, jurors convicted 31-year-old Sakiyna Thompson of first-degree murder in the 2022 stabbing death of 23-year-old Kayla Hodgson, a woman Thompson saw as a romantic rival.
According to court records and multiple local outlets, Thompson traveled to South Florida days before the killing after learning Hodgson was dating her former boyfriend and had blocked her online. Investigators said Thompson disguised herself, opened a fake Uber account to reach Hodgson’s Tamarac home around 5 a.m., and appeared at the door wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a COVID-19 mask, and gloves. Surveillance footage shown at trial captured the figure approaching Hodgson’s apartment hours before sunrise.
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Jurors also viewed graphic bodycam video and autopsy photos that prosecutors said showed the force and intent behind the attack. The disguise, the pre-dawn arrival, and the travel plans became central to the state’s argument that the killing was premeditated rather than the result of a sudden fight.
Investigators later tied Thompson to the crime using flight records, cellphone data, and items found inside the apartment. She was arrested in New York on Aug. 3, 2022, before being extradited back to Florida to face the murder charge.
During the trial, Thompson claimed she had “blacked out” during the confrontation and insisted she had acted to defend herself and her unborn child. Prosecutors countered that the sequence of events told a very different story. Assistant State Prosecutor Tonya Johnson told jurors that being attacked in one’s own home—by someone who had gone to such lengths to conceal her identity—underscored the deliberate nature of the crime.
After the verdict, Hodgson’s family said they finally felt a measure of relief. They told reporters they were grateful the jury recognized that Hodgson had done nothing to warrant the violence that claimed her life. Her mother, Kerry Hodgson, said the ruling brought the family “some peace, knowing justice has been served” after more than three years of waiting for the case to conclude.
