Shower stabbing: Georgia woman gets life in prison for sister's murder

Chakaya Brittney Folborg was sentenced to life in prison after admitting she used a steak knife to kill her sister in the shower, authorities said. 'The mother and their 12-year-old sister were on the other side of the bathroom door begging her to stop when they heard this,' an officer said.

By Michael Walsh - New York Daily News

Friday, April 25, 2014

A Georgia woman was sentenced to life in prison after she admitted to stabbing her sister to death with a steak knife.

Chakaya Brittney Folborg, 24, pleaded guilty in court Wednesday to the murder of her adopted sister Kourtney Chanel Dyches in their Mableton home on Feb. 20, 2012, authorities said.

The sisters were both 21 years old at the time.

“It was straight up jealousy,” Sherwin Figueroa, assistant district attorney of Cobb County, told the Daily News. “It’s just wrong and it is what it is.”

Figueroa, who prosecuted the case, explained that Folborg was adopted as an infant from a woman with a crack problem in New York. At the time, their mother did not think she could get pregnant. Shortly after, she gave birth to Dyches.

As they aged, Dyches became a popular girl with lots of friends. But Folborg admitted that she felt like a failure.

The girls never talked about boys, entertainment or other light-hearted subjects as teenagers, according to Figueroa.

Officer Kim Isaza said the sisters had a lot of tension in part because they lived in such a small house — so small that their family members could hear Dyches' final moments about 11 p.m. that day.

"The mother and their 12-year-old sister were on the other side of the bathroom door begging her to stop when they heard this," Isaza told The News.

Dyches died before cops could get to the house, officers said.

"This victim was a vibrant young lady with the rest of her life ahead of her," Figueroa said in a statement.

"The defendant, without any provocation, took a knife from the kitchen some two hours before the killing and waited until the victim was in the shower before viciously stabbing her at least six times."

Folborg, who has been in jail since her arrest, will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.

Cops: Woman stabs sister

Ajc.com

February 22, 2012

A Cobb County woman is accused of stabbing her sister to death with a steak knife in the family's home, police said.

Chakaya Brittney Folborg, 21, was arrested early Tuesday, hours after she allegedly killed 21-year-old Kourtney Chanel Dyches, Officer Mike Bowman with Cobb County police said. Folborg turned herself into police around 3 a.m. Tuesday, jail records show.

Folborg, of Mableton, was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault and booked into the Cobb County jail, where she remained Wednesday without bond.

Investigators believe a dispute between the sisters led to the killing, which happened with other family members in the home, Bowman said. Officers were called to the family's Gallant Circle home shortly after 11 p.m. Monday. Dyches was dead when officers arrived and had been stabbed several times, Bowman said.

Lisha Mauzy told the AJC she and Dyches, who also went by Chanel, were friends while attending Hiram High School. Dyches attended the Paulding County school for two years before her family moved into the McEachern High School district in Cobb County, Mauzy said.

“She was sweet. Everybody respected her,” Mauzy said of her friend. “This caught everybody off guard.”

Mauzy said news of Dyches’ death spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter, with many friends shocked that a relative was believed responsible.

“Life’s too short,” Mauzy said. “I work in the hospital, so I deal with death all the time. But I’ve never had someone close to me die.”

Folborg’s criminal history includes a November 2010 arrest on misdemeanor battery and cruelty to children charges, according to arrest records. Folborg was arrested Nov. 25, 2010, after she allegedly pushed, scratched and struck a man while she was holding her child, according to the arrest warrant.

Chakaya Folborg

Kourtney Dyches was only 21 when she was stabbed to death in the shower
of her Mableton, Ga., home by her own sister.
(Cobb County District Attorney's Office)