Sakiyna Thompson Case: Love Triangle, Trial, and Life Sentence

The Sakiyna Thompson case ended on December 1, 2025, when a Broward County judge sentenced the 27-year-old Queens woman to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the July 13, 2022, stabbing death of 23-year-old Kayla Hodgson in Tamarac, Florida. A jury convicted Thompson of first-degree murder on October 15, 2025, finding that she flew from New York to South Florida with the specific intent to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.¹²

Who Kayla Hodgson Was

Hodgson was a 23-year-old bartender and bottle waitress living in Tamarac. Friends described her as bright and sweet, “the life of the party,” and a former employer, Swana Alphonse, said she “always had kind words.”³ Her family called her an “amazing daughter, a very loved and adored big sister, niece, granddaughter, and cousin.”⁴

Thompson and Hodgson were involved with the same man, Thompson’s ex-boyfriend, whose name has not been publicly reported. Prosecutors said Thompson grew jealous after learning Hodgson was dating her ex and became fixated on Hodgson’s Instagram account, “1PrincessKay.” When Hodgson blocked her on social media, prosecutors said, that act triggered the plan to kill.⁵ The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Thompson flew from New York to South Florida days before the killing with the specific intent to murder Hodgson.⁶

Around 5 a.m. on July 13, 2022, Thompson arrived at Hodgson’s unit in the Tamarac Village Apartments. Surveillance footage showed her in a wide-brimmed hat, a COVID-19 mask, and gloves. She had used a fake Uber account to travel from her hotel to the complex.¹ Thompson confronted Hodgson about their shared romantic interest and stabbed her dozens of times.⁵

Afterward, she changed out of her blood-stained clothing and into the victim’s, tried to clean the scene, and discarded evidence. Cameras captured her walking down the apartment stairs with a suitcase and a box, in a hoodie and face mask, before she fled back to New York.⁷

Hodgson’s body was found inside her apartment the same day. Investigators tied Thompson to the killing through flight records, cellphone data, and physical evidence recovered from the scene.¹ The Broward Sheriff’s Office secured an arrest warrant on July 25, 2022, and New York State Police arrested Thompson at her Springfield Gardens home in Queens on August 3, 2022.⁸ The arrest affidavit accused her of “demonstrating a depraved mind without regard for human life…by stabbing with a sharp object, with a premeditated intent to cause death.”⁹ She was extradited to Broward County.

Thompson admitted killing Hodgson but told the jury it was self-defense. She testified that she had flown to Florida only for a “woman-to-woman” conversation, that Hodgson punched her and slashed her stomach with a piece of glass from a hookah, and that she then “blacked out” and did not come to until she saw Hodgson dead on the floor. Her attorneys also argued she had been protecting “the life of her unborn child,” though no medical evidence of a pregnancy was reported during the proceedings.⁶¹⁰

Assistant State Prosecutor Tonya Johnson countered with the evidence of planning: the cross-country flight, the disguise, the fake rideshare account, and the early-morning arrival. Autopsy photos showing dozens of stab wounds undercut the picture of a brief defensive struggle, and prosecutors pointed to Thompson’s conduct after the killing, changing clothes, cleaning up, throwing out evidence, and fleeing the state, rather than calling for help.¹¹ In closing, Johnson told jurors: “Being violated in your own home, in the sanctity of your own home, is a scary thing. What’s even scarier is being attacked, being brutally murdered in your own home, and that person getting away with it.”¹⁰ The jury returned a guilty verdict for first-degree murder on October 15, 2025.¹