A Barnard College student stabbed her mother to death as the two argued about the young woman returning to classes, authorities said.
Malika Jones, 22, was arrested Feb. 16 and charged with first-degree murder after she knifed her 57-year-old mom, Inell Jones, in the chest in the kitchen of their Rahway, NJ, home, police said.
The mother and daughter had a row over Jones’ “living situation” and going back to school, authorities said. She had been on academic leave from Barnard since last spring and was taking classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College before an expected return to the all-female school, her lawyer told The Post.
The shocking arrest is yet another campus tragedy for Barnard, which was rocked in December by the stabbing death of freshman Tessa Majors.
While on leave, Jones went to live in the small Rahway home where she was raised, mostly by her hairstylist mother after her parents divorced.
George Mars, a 72-year-old tenant in the home, told police he heard the mom and daughter fighting that day, starting at 7 a.m., according to a prosecutor’s affidavit obtained by The Post.
That afternoon, Mars told authorities that the mother yelled that the daughter “cut herself” and needed to go the hospital, but the elder Jones then spent about 20 minutes filling bags with canned goods for donations, the affidavit says.
Mars told police that he then heard what sounded like dishes breaking in the kitchen and, about 20 minutes later, he said Malika Jones came toward him yelling, “She tried to hurt me.”
The daughter called police shortly after 3 p.m. and her mother was pronounced dead at 3:28 pm. Malika had a superficial cut on her wrist, according to the affidavit, which said “a large common kitchen knife” was found near the body.
Jones is being held in Union County Jail.
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“We believe that this is a case of self-defense,” said Dennis Hickerson-Breedon, Jones’ lawyer. He said Jones “loved her mother very much.”
“For a young woman that has been a model student, model citizen with no criminal history whatsoever, to just all of the sudden be charged with a first-degree offense without any sort of justification — it’s just not practicable,” he said.
Hickerson-Breedon would not address why Jones was on leave from the school.
Jones attended the private Gill St. Bernard’s school where she competed on a robotics team and made the honor roll. She won an early decision acceptance to Barnard, a prestigious college that is part of Columbia University.
In social media posts, Jones is seen posing with Barnard’s dean of admission in 2017 during a visit to the dean’s home and dressed up and on the town with friends. She is beaming in a slip dress during her birthday celebration in November.
News of the stabbing shocked those who knew her.
An Upper West Side mom in a Facebook post said Jones was her Monday nanny and “go-to babysitter.” The woman said she “would only have wonderful things to say about her,” but declined to comment further.
Jones’ friends posted tributes on Instagram along with the hashtag justice4malika.
“Malika is a beautiful, gentle, creative, hilarious, smart, thoughtful and kind person,” said Phanesia Pharel. “She is working to be a doctor. She is an amazing actress. She is one of the only people I met in college who have always been genuine and kind. I wouldn’t have made it through the summer, through sophomore year or my junior fall without her.”
Another friend wrote, “She has so many people who love her including myself. … My heart is shattered by this tragedy and I miss having her by my side.”