Former The Lion King Child Actress Imani Dia Smith Dies at 26, Boyfriend Charged with Murder
Former Broadway actress Imani Dia Smith died on Sunday, Dec. 21 in Edison, N.J. after she was allegedly stabbed by her boyfriend. Smith, who appeared in The Lion King on Broadway as young Nala, leaves behind a 3-year-old son, according to a GoFundMe page set up in her name by an aunt.
Former The Lion King Child Actress Imani Dia Smith Dies at 26, Boyfriend Charged with Murder
Smith was found with stab wounds in a residence in Edison, N.J. on Sunday, Dec. 21 after someone reported a stabbing in a 911 call. According to a press release issued on Dec. 23 by prosecutors, Smith was pronounced dead after she was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.
Her boyfriend, Jordan D. Jackson-Small, 35, was arrested and accused of murder on Dec. 23, according to Middlesex County, New Jersey, prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Edison Police Department chief Thomas Bryan.
He was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.
"She leaves behind a 3-year-old son, her parents, her two younger siblings, and an extended family, friends, and community who loved her so very much," Smith's aunt Kira Helper wrote in a GoFundMe she set up on behalf of the family.
