NASSAU- A judge will hear the dispute over who has the right to bury murdered toddler D’onya Bella Walker on Monday, November 29.
The four-year-old’s grandmother, Monalisa Walker, wants the body turned over to her.
Since Bella was born out of wedlock, her mother, Ostonya, automatically had full custody.
She has now authorized her mother to act on her behalf.
Despite this, the body was released to her supposed father, Deno Smith, on November 8.
He hired Serenity Funeral Home and Cremation Centre to handle the burial.
Ms Walker has hired attorneys Bjorn Ferguson and Ciji Smith-Curry to assert her daughter’s legal rights.
Ferguson appeared before Justice Loren Klein on Friday, November 26 seeking an order to have the body turned over to the maternal grandmother.
The judge ordered no further action until a court ruling.
Meanwhile, Bella’s mother remains on remand on a charge of exposing a child to grievous harm.
Her boyfriend, Darion Smith, is charged with Bella’s murder.
Prosecutors alleged that he brutally beat her on November 5, causing her death.
He, too, remains in custody.
