ST. LOUIS, MO (April 10, 2024) — A jury found Janaya L. Neither, 25, guilty of second-degree assault and armed criminal action in the slashing of Tierra Gordon, 26, on August 7, 2021, in the 1900 block of Washington Avenue in the Downtown West neighborhood. Both women were dancers from out of state who had come to St. Louis to earn money working at a local club.

At about 6 a.m. on the day of the attack, a city street cleaner encountered Gordon covered with blood and crying in the middle of the intersection of 20^th Street and Washington Avenue and called police. She had been slashed multiple times in the face and body with a serrated kitchen knife and was later treated at a local hospital.



Police followed a trail of blood back to an Airbnb in the 1900 block of Washington Avenue that the two women had stayed in. After attacking Gordon, Neither and a friend fled the state.

A jury determined a sentence of seven years in prison for the assault and five years in prison for the armed criminal action. A judge will conduct a hearing on June 11, 2024, to finalize the sentence.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorneys Rob Huq and Michael Ware.

“The victim of this brutal assault will be able to move forward with her life knowing that her attacker will be behind bars for years to come,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. 

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