Man serving life sentence pleads guilty to cold case slaying of Broward teen

A man already serving life in prison admitted has admitted in court that he stabbed a teen girl to death inside her home more than two decades ago.

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Joseph Pollard, 61, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the second-degree murder of 15-year-old Farrah Titiana Carter, who was killed on May 22, 2002, court records show. Pollard was originally indicted on a first-degree murder charge back in 2021.

After Pollard changed his plea, Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan sentenced Pollard to another five years in prison for the slaying. The new conviction won’t affect Pollard’s release date, as he received two life sentences in a Miami-Dade robbery and burglary case.

Farrah’s mother found her, stabbed several times, inside her bedroom in their home on the 6500 block of Southwest 27th Street in Miramar, according to court records. The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Farrah been stabbed in the neck.

Farrah dreamed of attending beauty school or opening her own restaurant, according to her obituary. She was a student at the Hallandale Adult Community Center.

Blood was all over the ransacked home. A neighbor told police he saw a man in a white van outside the home that morning. The neighbor said the man, who was wearing a hat, was at the front door trying to get Farrah to let him inside but left without entering.

Investigators swabbed the home for DNA, and in 2019 developed a profile that matched Pollard, court records show. A hat not belonging to anyone living in the home was also found. It had Farrah’s blood — and Pollard’s DNA on it.

Aside from DNA, other evidence pointed to Pollard: A bloody shoeprint at the scene, investigators determined, belonged to a man wearing a size 10 shoe, the same size Pollard wears.

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In 2020, an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement visited Pollard at Cross City Correctional Institution, more than an hour west of Gainesville, and took a DNA sample. Pollard was also questioned two times and “repeatedly denied” participation in the murder, also denying knowing Farrah or any of her family members.

Investigators learned Pollard was not locked up at the time of Farrah’s murder, although he had been incarcerated in July 2002. Miami-Dade court records indicate Pollard violated probation in 2002 in the robbery and burglary case that led to his two life sentences.

‘Wanted so much out of life’

When Miramar police announced Pollard’s arrest in 2021, Farrah’s mother, Kim Battle, said she was feeling mixed emotions.

“It’s very pleasing in a sense, but it’s still heartbreaking without her being here to see what her life would have been like, to see the children she would have, as a mother,” Battle said, according to Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.

At the time, Farrah’s younger sister, Keli Craig, said she felt like Farrah was “cheated out of her life.”

“My sister was the type of person who wanted so much out of life and was not able to even see that next day,” Craig said, according to CBS News Miami.

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