Dallas Dad Who Drowned Sons Gets Death Penalty
From the archive: published May 23, 2013, 13 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Dallas, TX — A father who drowned his two young sons was sentenced to death Thursday.
Last week, a Dallas County jury took less than 10 minutes to find Naim Rasool Muhammad guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 3-year-old Elijah and 5-year-old Naim. That same jury took three and a half hours to sentence Muhammad to death.
The 34-year-old said he killed his young sons because their mother had started dating someone new, and he felt he was losing his chance to be a father.
In 2011, Muhammad abducted his sons and their mother, Kametra Sampson, on what would have been Naim’s first day of kindergarten. Muhammad forced them into his vehicle with a brick, but Sampson was able to jump out at an intersection and asked a nearby constable for help. Before the police were able to get to him, Muhammad told his sons to pretend they were swimming in a creek and held them under water until they drowned. Muhammad’s mother, Naimah, directed police to the creek where her grandsons had been killed.
Muhammad had also attempted to abduct his youngest child, a 1-year-old, from another location earlier that day.
Muhammad confessed to the murders in a taped interview that was played in court on May 14. The next day, the jury convicted Muhammad of capital murder.
“I don’t have to recall the facts of the case because, although it was not filled with blood or gore, it was a horror unimagined,” prosecutor Sherre Sweet said. “It was the ultimate textbook family violence power and control play — ‘If I can’t get you to do what I want you to do through violence, I will go to your very heartstrings.'”
Naim Rasool Muhammad has a history of violence and a criminal record spanning two decades. Sampson said he frequently beat her, and the family was being monitored by Child Protective Services officials since early 2011. CPS received a referral of family violence, but wouldn’t say who made the referral. Officials did say, however, that the three children and Sampson were living in a shelter at the time.
“I apologize for bringing any pain and hurt on anybody for the actions that I have caused to you all,” Muhammad said after his sentencing.