Mother speaks out after suspects sentenced in murder of Sanaa Amenhotep

Saleemah Graham-Fleming says sometimes she can feel her daughters presence most recently in the courtroom during the guilty verdict. 

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) – The mother of a Midlands 15-year-old girl is speaking out after three people were sentenced for their roles in her daughters death. 

The last time Saleemah Graham-Fleming sat on the couch in Richland County Sheriff  Leon Lott’s office was when she learned about the death of her daughter 15-year-old Sanaa Amenhotep who was abducted, beaten, stabbed and shot to death in 2021. 

“It’s a really full circle moment. I haven’t sat on this sofa since. Every time I’ve come to this office I’ve always sat at the table because it was grueling to even imagine sitting in this space again,” said Fleming. 

Recently, three people were convicted and sentenced in the murder: 19-year-old Nicolle Sanchez Peralta, 20-year-old Treveon Nelson, and 20-Jaylen Wilson.

“Five broken ribs ,a broken femur, two fractured bones in the legs, an eye out of the socket, and a broken face –  a 15-year-old girl had to run to her death with those injuries,”

Sanchez-Peralta was sentenced to 65 years in prison while Nelson and Wilson were each sentenced to 60 years in prison for the abduction and shooting death of Amenhotep. While this is justice says Fleming, it is not a celebration. 

“I’m not just Sanaa’s mother. I’m a mother. So I can never celebrate the demise of children, young people,” said Fleming. 

For Fleming, justice goes beyond the courtroom as she has served seventeen families with the anti-gun violence walks and also scholarships given to students in honor of Sanaae. She says sometimes she can feel her daughters presence most recently in the courtroom during the guilty verdict. 

“It was like she was standing right in front of me so those are to me reminders that spirit doesn’t die,” said Fleming. She gives credit to God for sustaining her through this process. “You have to trust that God has all the answers, He knows the beginning from the end.”