A 14-year-old girl accused of killing her mother has been released from the Pike County jail, a sheriff’s investigator confirmed.
Following a preliminary hearing on March 5, Judge Bryan Harbour reduced Amariyona Hall’s bond from $150,000 to $100,000.
Chief Investigator Chris Bell said $10,000 of Hall’s $100,000 bond has been posted and she is no longer in jail, where had been held in isolation because of her age.
Deputies arrested Hall and her 12-year-old sister for allegedly shooting and stabbing their mother, Ericka Hall, 32, to death on the night of Jan. 4.
Amariyona Hall is being charged as an adult, while the 12-year-old is being charged as a juvenile.
The 12-year-old, who was being held in a juvenile detention facility following her arrest, has also been released and is staying with the girls’ father, Eddie Isaac, at his house on 24th Street in McComb. He said at the hearing last week that he wanted Amariyona to be able to come stay with him, too.
Isaac, who is a maintenance worker at McDonald's and does air conditioning repair on the side, said he was worried about being able to raise the bond money.
In reducing the bond, Harbour denied a request from District Attorney Dee Bates that would require electronic monitoring upon her release. Bates said the 14-year-old would not be allowed to leave McComb city limits under the terms of her bond.
Isaac said at the preliminary hearing that neither the 12-year-old nor the 14-year-old has a job, driver's license, car, passport or bank account and poses a flight risk. He said his relatives would help care for the girls while he was at work.
Defense attorney Greg Malta of Brookhaven asked Isaac at the hearing if Amariyona had ever exhibited violent behavior.
"No, sir," he said.
Isaac told reporters after the preliminary hearing that he believes his daughters are innocent and he is trying to raise money to post bond for Amariyona Hall.
Last week, he disputed the accounts of his wife’s relatives and investigators about Ericka Hall’s death.
“They’ve got a bunch of stories and a bunch of lies and I just can’t see it happening that way,” Isaac said.
Malta said last week that the girls acted in self-defense. He indicated that he would try to suppress the girls’ statements to investigators and move Amariyona Hall’s case to youth court — a move Bates said he would oppose.
Judge Harbour noted that Hall has only recently lived in Pike County for about two years and family members in New Orleans raised her from the ages of 6 to 12.
"I don't think she has that much ability to flee," Harbour said.
