KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — One Knox County woman is fighting for justice two years after her daughter was killed in what police say is a double homicide on Ben Hur Avenue.
29-year-old Jamaica Greenlee and 48-year-old Robert Andrade were killed back in August 2020. The suspect, Eli Mostella, goes to trial next week.
“She loved her kids unconditionally,” said Neise North, Jamaica Greenlee’s mother. “She was the life of the party. She was my firstborn, my best friend.”
Greenlee was a mother of five. Today, her mother is grieving the loss of her daughter. Back in 2020, North got a knock at her door after she spent the day before with her daughter.
“About 7 o’clock in the morning somebody was at my door,” North explained. “They weren’t thinking it was her who got shot. They thought it was somebody else.”
Then she got a call no mother wants to get.
“My mama called me and said, Neise, Jamaica’s in this building and they won’t let me in,” North said through tears.
The shooting happened around 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning around the 600 Block of Ben Hur Avenue near Selma Avenue. North said the day still haunts her.
“It was one of the hardest days in my life. I won’t get my baby back, and it’s not fair to her kids, and I want justice.”
Greenlee’s family remembers her by wearing her favorite color, purple. A purple Ribbon Hangs on the door of the place she was killed.
“She deserves justice, her kids deserve justice, and I’m going to fight to get what I want,” said North. She adds that she’s speaking out against gun violence in her community, for her daughter, and for other families like hers.
“If we don’t stand up and say something for our community, who’s going to do it?”
Back in October 2020, we reported that Knoxville Police arrested and charged two suspects. One was a minor at the time and he was not identified. The other suspect was 20-year-old Eli Mostella. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Mostella will go to trial for this case next week.
