Mother sentenced for killing 5-year-old daughter during exorcism to ‘cast out evil spirits’

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A woman is headed to prison for killing her own daughter. Shekinah Akbar pleaded guilty to the murder, according to Cobb County District Attorney Flynn D. Broady, Jr.

Police arrested Akbar in 2020, charging her with felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, and aggravated assault strangulation.

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Officers went to the Cumberland Crossing apartments in Marietta where they found the 5-year-old girl unresponsive. According to an arrest warrant, the girl had “bruising throughout her body” and “visible injuries to her neck.”

Akbar initially told investigators neighbors tortured and beat her daughter, then locked them both in the bathroom for hours.

She later told detectives during an interview she was performing an exorcism on her daughter, admitting to hitting and biting her and putting her hands in and over her daughter’s mouth, according to the District Attorney.

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Akbar was arrested and charged with murdering her daughter. She filed a special plea of insanity but withdrew the notice and entered a guilty but mentally ill plea to felony murder and cruelty to children in the first degree, according to prosecutors.

This week, a judge sentenced Akbar to life in prison

“This beautiful little girl was brutally tortured, bitten, and abused for upwards of 12 hours by the one person in the world who is supposed to love her unconditionally and protect her at all costs. It is unfathomable the betrayal she must’ve felt,” said Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green..

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