A 14-year-old Camden girl told a judge Tuesday that her gang leader told her “to finish [Muriah Huff] off.” So that’s what she did.
Shatara Carter pleaded guilty Tuesday to the prolonged torture and murder of 18-year-old Huff inside a Berkley Street home in Camden in February, according to the Camden County District Attorney’s office.
During her plea, Cater gave a detailed account of the hours-long torture and brutal murder of Huff and Huff’s boyfriend 23-year-old Michael Hawkins:
Hawkins, who allegedly was a Crips gang member and ultimately killed because of a gang dispute, took his girlfriend, Huff—who did not belong to a gang, to Carter’s rowhouse Feb. 22. Carter’s co-defendants led Hawkins upstairs where they beat him until almost every bone in his face was broken, shot him multiple times and finally stabbed him to death.
While Hawkins was being tortured, Carter kept Huff downstairs. After Hawkins died, another defendant in the case, Kuasheim Powell, came downstairs and pistol whipped the 18-year-old woman twice and hit her with a chair until the chair broke.
Powell then ordered Carter and others to “finish her off.”
Carter and her co-defendants beat Huff with pieces of the chair, punched her, choked her with their hands and then a rope, stabbed her, and then finally put a plastic bag over her head and strangled her with a rope, the 14-year-old said.
Carter said she personally tried to choke Huff with her hands and a rope and then tried to stab her.
“This was evil,” Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson told the Philadelphia Inquirer in February. “It’s impossible for any sane person to wrap their mind around what took place in that house.”
Powell is charged with two counts of murder and is being held at the Camden County jail.
The bodies of Hawkins and Huff were buried in the back yard of the rowhouse and found two days later by police.
Carter is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in New Jersey state prison, according to the DA’s office.
The following people have also been arrested and are being held on charges connected with the two killings:
Charged solely with killing Huff:
- Shaniqua Pierre, 18, of Deptford
Charged solely with killing Hawkins:
- Dennis Welch, 19, of Camden
- Lance Fulton, 19, of Camden
Charged in connection with both homicides:
- Darryl Pierre, 19, of Merchantville
- Clive Hinds, 18, of Maple Shade
- Keenan Wideman, 17, of Pennsauken
- Peter Leonce, 17, of Astoria, NY
- David Hardwick, 17, of Pennsauken
