The death of Justina Wallace left five children without their mother and became the center of a capital murder trial.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Justina Wallace was holding her toddler and had two sons nearby when she was shot during a July 2023 confrontation that ended with another pregnant woman sentenced to life without parole.
The case reached its legal end in May, but its central facts remain tied to the children who were present. Wallace was 36, pregnant and a mother of five. The toddler in her arms was fathered by the same man who fathered the unborn child of Aaniyah Nowden, the woman convicted of shooting Wallace. Jurors were asked to decide whether the shooting was self-defense or murder. They convicted Nowden of capital murder.
Wallace went to a home on the 3200 block of 17th Avenue North on July 7, 2023. The home was in Birmingham’s Norwood area, a neighborhood north of downtown. Testimony placed Wallace at the scene with her toddler daughter in her arms while two of her sons stood close by. Nowden, then eight months pregnant, was also there. The man connected to both women was part of the argument that unfolded before the shot. Wallace was struck, taken to a hospital and died July 8. Her unborn child died as well.
The children’s presence shaped the charge and the courtroom debate. Birmingham police first announced a capital murder case after Wallace’s death. Prosecutors later told jurors that Wallace was unarmed and holding a child, not threatening Nowden. Deputy District Attorney Jason Wilson said in court that Wallace had “no gun,” a short phrase that captured the state’s view of the evidence. The defense answered that Wallace had been aggressive during the argument and that Nowden believed she needed to protect herself.
The toddler, Sky, became a repeated point of reference during the trial because Wallace was carrying her when the shooting happened. Prosecutors used that detail to argue that Wallace’s hands and attention were occupied. The defense did not deny the shooting but disputed the meaning of the moments before it. Nowden’s lawyers said the argument mattered and asked jurors to view the gunfire through Nowden’s fear. The state asked jurors to focus on the lack of a weapon in Wallace’s possession and the child in her arms.
The jury also had to weigh evidence from a cellphone video that reportedly captured part of the confrontation. That recording did not erase every unknown. It did, however, become a key piece in testing the self-defense claim. Prosecutors said the video supported their account that Wallace was not attacking. The defense said the larger argument and Wallace’s conduct before the shooting supported Nowden’s fear. After hearing the testimony, jurors found Nowden guilty on one capital murder count and rejected the outcome the defense sought.
Nowden had originally faced three capital murder counts. Jurors dismissed two counts and convicted on one. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, but the sentence imposed was life without the possibility of parole. The sentence means Nowden is expected to spend the rest of her life in prison unless a later court action changes the conviction or punishment. She was 24 at sentencing. She gave birth while in custody after the shooting, leaving another child tied to the case without a mother at home.
For Wallace’s family, the court record describes more than one loss. Wallace’s five children lost their mother, and the unborn child she was carrying did not survive. Local accounts after the shooting described relatives and friends as stunned by how quickly the dispute became deadly. They also described a birthday gathering for Sky that went forward after Wallace’s death, a painful marker of ordinary family life continuing after a public tragedy. Those details did not determine the verdict, but they shaped the human frame around the case.
The legal process was not smooth. A first trial ended in a mistrial in May after jury selection left too few people to hear the case. The court then moved to another trial. Jurors returned the guilty verdict May 28, and sentencing followed May 29 in Jefferson County. District Attorney Danny Carr said afterward that there were “no winners” and that the case showed the cost of violent emotional acts. His statement did not name a single motive but placed the shooting in the broader problem of disputes turning deadly.
The place of the shooting added another layer to the story. The 3200 block of 17th Avenue North is a residential setting, not a courthouse or public square. The violence happened where children, family conflict and daily life overlapped. The case showed how a private dispute can become a public prosecution when a gun enters the scene. It also left jurors to examine seconds of action that would decide whether Nowden’s explanation could stand against the charge of capital murder.
Nowden’s next possible legal steps would be post-trial motions or an appeal. Those steps would focus on trial rulings, evidence, jury issues or the legal basis for the conviction. They would not, by themselves, undo the sentence unless a higher court found a serious error. As of the latest public reporting, the life-without-parole sentence remained in place and Wallace’s death remained recorded as the act that led to Nowden’s capital murder conviction.
The case stands with Nowden serving a life sentence and Wallace’s children left as the central survivors of the July 2023 shooting.
Author note: Last updated June 29, 2026.