Las Vegas: 3-year-old girl allegedly stabbed to death by father’s girlfriend

• Marketta Phillips allegedly stabbed 3-year-old Journei Ross to death in Las Vegas.
• Phillips left messages at the scene, including one written in blood: ‘Everybody who played me is cursed.’
• Phillips reportedly confessed to police, stating she ‘snapped’ to ‘get back at’ Jeremy Ross.

Warning: Distressing content

The woman accused of stabbing a US toddler to death allegedly left a chilling six-word message at the scene, written in the little girl’s blood.

Journei Ross, 3, died last Wednesday in father Jeremy Ross’ Las Vegas home after she was allegedly stabbed several times by his “on-and-off girlfriend”, Marketta Phillips, 8 News Now reports.

“I didn’t know she was a crazy case,” Ross said outside court after Phillips made her first appearance last week.

The pair had been living together for about a year and he described her as his “on-and-off girlfriend” and roommate in an arrest report released by Las Vegas police.

Journei Ross, 3, died last Wednesday after she was allegedly stabbed several times by Marketta Phillips. Photo / Jeremy Ross

He said he left Journei in her care when he went to work at 6pm on March 25.

When he arrived home in the early hours of the following morning, he saw Phillips sitting on the kitchen floor with blood on her and “surrounded by multiple knives”.

“She was just out of it or something. I walked into the room and I seen my baby girl …. on the bed,” Ross said.

He began chest compressions and called emergency services, when he was heard yelling “you murdered my baby”.

Phillips fled the scene and was arrested shortly afterwards.

Police found three sheets of paper in the home, laid out in a path from a hallway to the bedroom.

They read: “See what happens when you [redacted] with people’s lives”, “Your and idiot [sic]” and “Now we both have nothing”.

And in the bedroom, written in blood, was: “Everybody who played me is cursed.”

Police said Phillips confessed to detectives that she “snapped” and stabbed the little girl “to get back at him”.

She reportedly did not elaborate on her motive.

Journei’s mother, Phalan Whitson, told 8 News Now she last saw her daughter when she handed her over to Ross last Monday.

The first time she saw her alleged killer was in court.

“She took my baby,” Whitson said through tears.

“I didn’t know this woman.”

“She could light up a room wherever she was at,” she said of her daughter.

“I deserve justice,” Whitson said. “She [Phillips] doesn’t, she needs to be put away.”

Phillips’ next scheduled court appearance is on April 1.