Florida Man Arrested After Woman Slain, Baby Left To Die In Hot Car
A Florida man was arrested in New Jersey last week in the fatal shooting of a woman and death of her baby, who was trapped in a hot car with her mother’s body, authorities said.
Doujon Griffiths, 23, had been wanted since September 2021 in the deaths of 20-year-old Massania Malcolm and her 1-year-old daughter, Jordania Reid. Griffiths is also facing attempted murder charges in the shooting of Jordane Reid, identified by investigators as Malcolm’s boyfriend and Jordania’s father.
The shootings took place outside Malcolm’s Orlando apartment building on Sept. 7, 2021, Orange County Sheriff’s Office detectives said in arrest warrants obtained by HuffPost.
Jordane Reid was hospitalized and has since recovered. Malcolm and Jordania’s bodies were discovered on Sept. 9 in Reid’s car, Sheriff John Mina said in a Sept. 10 news conference.
“It’s disgusting,” Mina said at the time. “It’s truly an evil person, and whoever did that will have to pay for those crimes.”
Griffiths had been living with Malcolm and Reid, a longtime friend, at her Orlando apartment in the month leading up to the shootings, sheriff’s detectives said in arrest warrants issued in September. Malcolm was upset that Griffiths wasn’t contributing to rent or other household expenses during his stay, Reid later told investigators, and on Sept. 7 said she wanted him to leave. Reid agreed to drive Griffiths to a Greyhound bus station and buy him a ticket. Malcolm joined them, sitting in the front passenger seat with the couple’s baby in her lap.
Griffiths was sitting in the rear passenger seat, Reid said, and shot at him before he started backing out of the parking lot, according to the warrants. When the father jumped out of the car and tried to run away, Griffiths got out and continued to fire a pistol at him, Reid said. Investigators later determined that Griffiths fled in the car with the others still inside.
Investigators believe that Griffiths shot and killed Malcolm inside the vehicle, drove to a different parking lot and walked away, leaving her body and the baby there.
A medical examiner determined that Malcolm had died from a gunshot wound to the face, neck and hand, and ruled her death a homicide. Jordania had no noticeable injuries and is believed to have died from heat exhaustion.
After the shootings, a neighbor heard Reid requesting help and called 911. Orange County sheriff’s deputies said that Reid, who was lying behind a bush with multiple gunshot wounds, attempted to tell them what had happened but couldn’t speak. On Sept. 9, Reid, who had undergone surgery and was intubated, managed to write Griffiths’ name and nodded when asked if Malcolm had also been shot.
After confirming that Malcolm was not at her apartment, investigators were able to locate Reid’s car, a Volkswagen Jetta belonging to his mother, using GPS technology. Inside the car, which was parked in a lot about 1 mile away from Malcolm’s apartment complex, investigators found her body in the passenger seat and the baby’s body on the driver’s side floorboard.
The car’s air conditioning “was in the off position” when the vehicle was found, investigators said.
“[Griffiths] left Jordania Reid inside the closed vehicle without assistance, without any air conditioning or food,” knowing that the baby had no way to escape, a sheriff’s detective wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Police officers in Linden, New Jersey, arrested Griffiths on the outstanding murder warrants after a traffic stop last week, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced on social media, adding that he would be extradited to Orange County.
The sheriff’s office currently does not have a time frame for when extradition will take place, a spokesperson told HuffPost. The State Attorney’s Office serving Orange County confirmed to HuffPost that an extradition request was sent but has not yet filed charges against Griffiths while he remains in custody in New Jersey. HuffPost reached out to the Linden Police Department but did not immediately receive a response.
It was unclear whether Griffiths had retained an attorney.
