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Both Steven Smith, age 60, of Salisbury, North Carolina, and Allah-Son-Allah, age 53, of Albany, have been indicted in the 1995 fatal stabbing of Michael Jones that took place at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Tuesday, June 6.
According to the DA's Office, on December 24, 1995, around 8 p.m., Jones, who had been serving time in Sing Sing, was stabbed in the chest with a buck knife by fellow inmate Allah-Son-Allah, piercing his heart and causing him to bleed to death.
The murder had been ordered by Smith as a result of a feud in The Five-Percent Nation, also known as The Nation of Gods and Earths, which the two suspects and Jones had been members of.
Smith had also been serving time at Sing Sing at the time of the murder.
The two men were identified as suspects in the nearly 30-year-old murder after a decades-long investigation by the New York State Police and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office that began in 1995 and was reinvigorated in 2019.
The process involved investigators traveling to multiple states to interview several witnesses who had also been incarcerated in Sing Sing, according to the DA's Office.
Both suspects were eventually located by state police and the DA's Office's Homicide Bureaus. Smith was arrested with the help of the Salisbury Police Department on Thursday, May 11 and Allah-Son-Allah was arrested on Tuesday, May 16 with the help of Albany Police.
Both men face the following charges:
- Smith, arraigned on Friday, June 2, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and second-degree murder;
- Allah-Son-Allah, arraigned on Tuesday, May 16, is charged with second-degree murder.
Both suspects have since been remanded.
Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah attributed the solved case to "phenomenal investigative work" by state police and her office's Cold Case and Homicide Bureaus.
"After 27 years, we have secured an indictment for the murder of Michael Jones," she said, adding, "My office is committed to working closely with our law enforcement partners to solve the more than 100 open homicide cases in Westchester County.”
New York State Police Acting Superintendent Steven A. Nigrelli also commented on the arrests, saying, "This case is evidence that we will not stop fighting for those victims who have no voice, and we pledge to continue working alongside all of our law enforcement partners to ensure that justice is served.”
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