Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Bloody 3-Year-Old Finds Mom Murdered

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Miami-Dade sheriff's deputies found Maria Camila Garcia-Molina dead in her car last weekend after family members found her 3-year-old daughter wandering with blood on her face and clothes. Detectives tracked down Garcia-Molina's ex-boyfriend, Joy Chandra Nath. Garcia-Molina's family said Nath had been stalking her and she had a restraining order against him at some point. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes over the horrific case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:  If your child, under 21, has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or fatty liver disease, visit https://forthepeople.com/food to start a claim now!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Melba Pearson https://www.instagram.com/resident_legal_diva/Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. So you are arrested for one count of second degree murder and one count of child abuse. A man has been charged with brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend. Police say he once stalked her. I have the horrific details from the murder of Maria Camila Garcia Molina and how police say her child is involved. Welcome to Crime Fix.

I'm Anjanette Levy, and I just want to remind you that we're now on Spotify. You can watch us and listen to us there. So please feel free to check us out. Maria Camila Garcia Molina. She was a beautiful 24-year-old woman living in Florida. And she was the mother of a three-year-old daughter. And sadly, last Saturday, Garcia Molina's life ended in front of her little girl, according to police. And now her ex-boyfriend is in jail charged with

murdering her. This incredibly sad story started last Saturday afternoon in Miami when family members flagged down Miami-Dade Sheriff's deputies because Garcia Molina's little three-year-old daughter had what appeared to be dried blood on her clothes and her face. Many more details are revealed in a probable cause affidavit. That document states, investigation revealed that the victim had left her residence with her juvenile daughter at approximately 1230 p.m. Subsequently, at approximately 238 p.m., the victim's daughter was discovered abandoned around the neighborhood of the victim's mother's residence, which was highly unusual. The victim's daughter had blood on her and no trauma. Furthermore, the victim's daughter disclosed to a Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Vulnerable Victims Unit detective that her mother was with Joy and that her mother was hit in the head and she was now sleeping.

Joy is Joy Chandranath, and according to investigators, he is the ex-boyfriend of Garcia Molina. The affidavit continued. An area canvas was conducted for the victim's vehicle, which was located in a visitor parking space within the Twin Lakes complex where the victim resides. Suspected blood was observed in plain view in the front passenger seat and what appeared to be a human body covered in blankets on the rear floorboard. That body, of course, was Garcia Molina's. Her family members told detectives things that made them even more concerned and gave them a reason to look for Joy Knapp. The affidavit continued. Family members on scene advised that the victim had an ex-boyfriend

identified as the defendant who had a history of stalking and following her. The victim had also obtained a past temporary restraining order on the defendant. Furthermore, the night prior, on April 25th, 2025, the defendant had unexpectedly responded to Dolphin Mall, where the victim was with her new boyfriend and engaged in a verbal altercation with them. Deputies and detectives they started looking for Joy Knapp and they found him early Sunday morning just after midnight at Garcia Molina's apartment complex. The affidavit states the defendant arrived at the Twin Lakes complex in his vehicle and turned onto Southwest 136th Avenue and proceeded to turn off his headlights.

Investigators conducted a traffic stop and they discovered the defendant with scratches on his arms, face and neck. The defendant spontaneously stated that he had the victim's belongings with him and that he was going to return them to her. The defendant also spontaneously stated, can you guys tell me what happened? Because I saw her this morning and that's all it was. Detectives took Joy Nath to the police station where they say he waived his rights and he agreed to talk to them. The defendant stated that he was with the victim prior to her being discovered deceased and that he met the victim who was accompanied by her three-year-old child in the parking lot of Casa Vanna Cuban Cuisine. The defendant stated that they went into Starbucks and ate breakfast. The defendant stated that the victim gave him her purse with her personal

effects to include her cellular telephone. The defendant stated they went their separate ways and that he returned to his residence and washed his clothing. Now, I'm sure the detectives included that part about Nath saying he washed his clothing because they suspect he did this because he likely had blood on him. The affidavit mentions again, it should be noted that the defendant had bruising on the right side of his face and cheek, along with several scratches on his neck, arms, and face, which indicate that he was in a physical altercation. Now, all of this led detectives to get a search warrant for Nath's vehicle. The defendant's vehicle was searched by homicide investigators.

Observed inside the defendant's vehicle was the victim's purse, which contained her cellular telephone and government identifications. It should be noted that only the murderer would have possession of her cellular telephone device as the victim's cellular telephone records were analyzed by Homicide's hit squad, revealing that the victim's cellular telephone was initially at her residence and then traveled to the defendant's residence. The victim's cellular telephone then returned back to the scene where the victim's body was located. The victim's cellular telephone then returned back to the scene where the victim's body was located. The victim's cellular telephone remained at the scene, and then the last known tower ping was in the area of State Road 836 and I-95 in an eastbound direction.

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Joy Knapp was booked into the jail on charges of second degree murder and child abuse. Knapp appeared in court. Good morning, Mr. Knapp. Sir, you are arrested for one count of second degree murder and one count of child abuse. This is from April 26th. The judge took some time to look through the documents, then had some questions. I don't know if it's child abuse or child neglect, although I don't know what your position is for child abuse. Killing the child's mother in front of the child.

Is that abuse? I still think it's neglect. The street from the car afterwards. Yeah, I would say that would be a child abuse. The prosecutor said Knapp is accused of killing Garcia Molina in front of her child and then leaving the child in the street. So, yes, they would definitely call that child abuse. The state filed a motion for pretrial detention pending final hearing pursuant to Florida Statute 907.041. Since second degree murder is considered a dangerous crime, I'm granting the state's motion for pretrial detention, holding it with no bond and count to child abuse. I'll set that at $5,000. So, sir, you will see a judge

tomorrow. That judge will set a final hearing on the state's motion for pretrial detention. But that wasn't all. It's an open case, Your Honor. Oh, he has an open case. Oh, he's having a felony bond for grand theft and fraudulent use of an ID as well. I'll see your judge tomorrow. Good day. Thank you. Nath is now being held without bail on that murder charge. And as you heard, he has other pending cases.

So to talk about this incredibly sad case, I want to bring in Melba Pearson. She is a former prosecutor. Melba, this case is just unbelievable to me. The minute I saw the information about it, that we have a three-year-old little girl who left the house with her mother, and then she's discovered with dried blood on her. And she's recounting what happened to law enforcement. I just can't even imagine. I mean, it's just heartbreaking. Yeah. For that poor child to lose her mother in such a horribly violent fashion and to have to witness it and basically be like mommy sleeping like she doesn't even really understand her poor little mind can't grasp, but she's never going to see her mom again. heart. It fully breaks my heart, especially as someone who was handling domestic crimes. I mean,

that's definitely a cause that's close to my heart. And I just, I mean, all my love and strength goes out to the family because there's going to have, they're going to have so much work ahead of them, not only grieving the loss of their loved one, but also trying to make sure this little girl gets the support and love and services that she needs, including getting past the trauma of what happened to her. And sadly, we know that this kind of trauma can follow you throughout your life. So, you know, it's going to take a lot of work from the family and therapists and all that to make sure that this little girl stays okay, because this is just terrible. Yeah. I mean, to me, I think you're right. The

little girl has no understanding of what happened. She's saying, you know, mommy was with joy and hit her head and now she's sleeping. But obviously the little girl, she has evidence on her. They're saying she has blood on her face and her clothes. She was there when this happened and she witnesses it, but she's able to give these detectives, she's just a little child, give these detectives and her mom's family, her family, enough information to go in the right direction. And so they go in the right direction. And the family also provides this information even more disturbing than the you know, the fact that she had a restraining order on him at one point. So she was afraid of him. And there had been a history, apparently, of stalking. And so as a domestic violence prosecutor, my gosh, does that up the ante here at all? Because right now he's charged with second degree murder.

And so do you see potentially that charge being upgraded? Is that a charge you just file kind of right off the bat? Like once this goes to grand jury, do things get enhanced? Yeah. So there's a couple of ways that this could play out. First off, this could just be a second degree murder because again, second degree murder in Florida is kind of considered that crime of passion, lack of premeditation. So it's possible that he was, and this is not a justification, I want to be very, very crystal clear that I'm not justifying

anything, but it's a matter of the fact that he had been stalking her. And then there was a confrontation earlier between her and him and her new boyfriend. So could he have been enraged by this? And that's what caused him to snap to commit this crime. That's a possibility. And then that takes the premeditation aspect out of it. Now, if there's other evidence that could be gleaned from his technology, whether it's whether it be his cell phone, his social media, where he was making statements right before this happened. Now, there is a possibility that that could be used to prove premeditation. I think we all may have the feeling that it's kind of premeditated because, again, you've been abusing her over the course of who knows how long. So there's that element to it.

But again, you still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had planned this. He had time to reflect and chose to move forward and commit this heinous crime. So, you know, it is possible that it could remain a second degree, but it is possible that it could escalate to a first. If it ends up being a first degree murder, that means it would have to go through the grand jury process and the grand jury would have to determine whether or not a first degree murder is appropriate in this instance. Yeah. And, you know, that's what's so disturbing to me about this. And we see this often in cases of kind of domestic violence, homicides, where there was a history of stalking. Or, you know, we don't know exactly when the relationship ended, but according to the documents, she had a new boyfriend and there had been this confrontation at the mall. So obviously he ran into her or potentially there was some stalking going on and maybe he created the situation where he encountered them.

Is that something you commonly see? Yeah, absolutely. Because, again, when you're looking at that volatility of a domestic violence relationship, violence is always lurking in the know, in the background, whether it be, and it's always almost implicit, right? Because he's stalking her for a reason because she has dared to leave him. She's dared to reject him and she's dared to not be under his control anymore. So he has to find her and teach her a lesson and, or in his mind, beg for her back because of course, he's the most wonderful guy ever. Why would she ever want to leave him despite the fact that he's abusive, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, we often see these, that violence emerge in so many different ways, which again, just, I always come back to this whenever I talk about these cases

with you or anywhere else that please, please, these situations never get better. Domestic violence situations never get better. So if you or someone you know is involved in that type of situation, please, there's so many resources out there available. Do not stay in that relationship because, sadly, too many of these types of relationships end the way that we see right now, which is in violence and in death. He is charged with child abuse. Obviously, that would be for committing the homicide, committing the murder in front of the child. To me, I mean, I don't know if there's a tougher charge for that. That to me just seems to up the ante a lot. Is that the highest charge? Is that the most you can do in the state of Florida is child abuse for killing, if he's

ultimately convicted, for killing a child's parent in front of them? Sadly, yes. However, and let me give two caveats. Number one, the charge is usually child abuse, no great bodily harm, meaning the child themselves was not physically harmed during the course of this crime. So that's the best we can do in terms of the fact that the child was not physically, emotionally harmed, absolutely, but the child was not physically harmed. So that's how that charge shakes out. However, the fact that the child was present and witnessed the homicide can be an aggravating factor at sentencing. So even though it doesn't play out

in the charge itself, so I believe it's a third degree felony with a maximum of five years. So, okay, there's that. But also when it comes to sentencing, usually this is a situation which then would result in a life sentence. So that's sort of the way that it ends up being, it shakes out. Now, is that something for the Florida legislature to take up?

You know, I think so, but, you know, at this juncture, that's all we have to work with here. You know, there there's another piece of this, too. I mean, there were some red flags. And obviously we're really reading a probable cause document. So they just have to put enough in there to support, you know, probable cause to support the arrest. But, you know, there are so many weird things that he said in that statement, you know, the going home and the washing of the clothes. And then the fact that he's got her purse and her cell phone and that he claims, well, she gave, she gave me her purse and her cell phone. No woman

that I know of, and I am a woman, is going to say, hey, I'm going to just hang out for the day, but here's my purse and my cell phone. Why don't you take it? Yeah. Never in the history of woman has that happened. Let's be very clear. Never. Love my husband to death, but I'm like, not like, hey, babe. Maybe if you go to the ladies room somewhere, you're handing over your purse. Hey, can you hold this for me? But not for like the day. Correct. Correct, correct. Because again, you're thinking about money, you're thinking about access to be able to return calls,

send a text message. So clearly this is a situation where he was trying to deprive her of any way of escaping the situation, being able to call for help. Many times you see in these domestic crimes cases that the first thing that gets taken or broken is the phone, whether it be the cell

phone, the house phone, because again, the goal is to make sure the person can't call for help. And that's during the transaction of the crime. Now that in and of itself does not necessarily prove premeditation depending on when it was taken, but usually it happens during the course of the incident to deprive the person, the ability of, of trying to get help. So, you know, but again, what's going to be critical is he said in his statement that, oh, they went to Starbucks, they had this lovely breakfast, and then she left and left her purse and phone with him. The surveillance camera footage is going to be critical

to show, okay, what Starbucks did you go to? Let's see if you actually went there together or was she sitting there under duress? Did Starbucks not happen at all? Which is my bet, right? So show us some receipts, something. So I think there's still more investigation yet to be done that can shed more light on what happened. But his statement is clearly very self-serving.

There's no question in my mind that he did it. The question is whether he planned it or whether it was spur of the moment. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know if she would have been able to call for help. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. But they said the medical examiner, the autopsy revealed that she had sustained sharp force injuries to her neck, torso and upper extremities. So it sounds like she was stabbed or bludgeoned. So, oh my goodness. I just can't even imagine. But then the taking of the purse and the cell phone, and obviously they've got the cell phone data that they believe backs up the fact that he took her belongings and things of that nature. So it'll be interesting to

see how this case plays out. But my heart goes out to that poor little girl having witnessed her mother's murder. It's just awful. Absolutely awful. Again, just reiterating, you know, if you're in that kind of situation, get some help. I mean, there's people out there that will support you. We've got the National Domestic Violence Hotline. There's shelters locally in every single state in this country. So please get that assistance. And if you're looking for those resources, make sure not to do it on a device that your abuser has access to. No doubt.

Because again, that can trigger another situation. And the most dangerous time No doubt. you, let your boss know. I mean, it can be embarrassing, but that may be the thing to not only save your life, but other people's lives. Because again, when somebody is in that mindset, they may try to harm you and end up hurting someone else. So again, I mean, this is serious and this is very volatile. Never underestimate how people react in that situation. Yeah, no doubt. Thank you so much, Melva Pearson, for joining me. I appreciate it. My pleasure, Angie. Here's another look at that BL hearing for Joy Nath. Mr. Lenny, for the record, and he does have family present on Zoom. They should be under the name Jabba. It's his sister and mother. Good morning, Mr. Knapp.

Sir, you are arrested for one count of second-degree murder and one count of child abuse. This is from April 26th. I'm sorry, what is your name, counsel? Antonio Pena, again, for the record, Your Honor. I'm also president with Mr. Julian Strelany. Can I just spell your last namealini that's my last name sir p-e-n-a thank you all right and your honor just again for the fact he does have family present on his sister and mother are present i believe they're under the name java mr nath good morning please don't make any statements. Well, just a reminder. Дякую. Okay. I don't know if it's child abuse or child neglect, although I don't know what your position is for child abuse, killing the child's mother in front of the child. Is that abuse? I still think it's neglect. abuse killing the child's mother in front of the child instead of being a

subject of neglect. And then the child into the street from the car afterwards? Yeah I would say that would be a child abuse. Anything you want to say? No, Your Honor. We don't have a PCR email at this time. I also understand the state has filed a motion for pretrial detention. Okay. The state filed a motion for pretrial detention. The state filed a motion for pretrial detention, pending final hearing,

pursuant to Florida Statute 907.041, since second-degree murder is considered a dangerous crime, and granting the state's motion for pretrial detention, holding it with no bond, and count two child abuse. I'll set that at $5,000. So, sir, you will see a judge tomorrow. That judge will set a final hearing on the state's motion for pretrial detention.

Thank you, Mr. Kramer. Thank you, Your Honor. Your Honor, you also have a hold for F2426031. Hold for F2426031. He's also out on probation. Let me see what it was for. It's an open case, Your Honor. Oh, he has an open case.

He's out on a felony bond for grand theft and fraudulent activity. He has an open case. He's on a felony bond for grand theft and fraudulent use of an ID as well. We'll see your judge tomorrow. Good day. Thank you. Thank you. Maria Camila Garcia Molina's mother started a GoFundMe to pay for her funeral and to raise money to help her daughter. She wrote, I'm writing this story with a broken heart and tears in my eyes. I hope you guys understand me. Camilla was the most beautiful and loving girl that you can

ever imagine. She was a hardworking woman who had dreams, plans, and a beautiful future ahead that was taken away from her too soon. She left behind a beautiful three-year-old girl who will never see her mom again. I'm asking for everyone to please help me give her a beautiful burial and give her baby the most beautiful future. Please, anything helps. Thank you and God bless you. Joynath remains in the Miami-Dade County Jail where he's being held without bail, as I mentioned. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.