New York Attorney General Letitia James has been harboring a fugitive from justice in the Norfolk, Virginia house at the center of her federal indictment, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
Letitia James’s niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, has two daughters who live in separate properties owned by James in Norfolk. Both have significant criminal histories.
The AG’s ne’er-do-well grandniece, Nikia (Nakia) Monique Thompson, 36, has been living in one of the houses with her three children since she fled North Carolina in 2020. Thompson reportedly told the grand jury in June that she had been living rent-free in the home since James bought it and that James even pays for basic upkeep.
“Ms. Thompson was sentenced to probation for misdemeanor convictions for assault and battery and trespassing, and has willfully avoided probation supervision,” Keith Acree, communications director for the North Carolina Department of Corrections, told the Daily Mail. “An absconder is considered a fugitive,” Acree added. “Thompson faces arrest if she is located in North Carolina.” Because her crimes of assault and trespass are considered low level, they are “non-extraditable,” Acree noted.
Thompson is officially listed in North Carolina as an “absconder” who is being sought by authorities for failing to finish her probation. Thompson’s “Offender Information” page on the North Carolina Department Of Adult Correction website includes an appeal for information leading to Thompson’s whereabouts, along with her mugshot and offender number.
According to the Daily Mail, Thompson said “no comment” when approached, “before bizarrely adding that she was ‘very much in college, and very much a graduate.'”
Thompson has an extensive rap sheet that goes back to 2005. She has held various jobs, including as a debt collections representative, a stocker at Walmart and a cashier at Wendy’s, her Linkedin page shows.
James was indicted on October 9 in Alexandria, Virginia, on two felony charges related to the property: bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. She purchased the home in 2020 for $109,000 and is now valued at $235,000, the Daily Mail reported.
According to the indictment, James claimed on mortgage paperwork that a home she purchased in Norfolk would be her second residence. That claim allowed her to get favorable loan terms not available for investment properties, prosecutors say.
But, prosecutors allege, James did not use the house and instead rented the property to a family of three. They allege she falsely stated in loan applications that the residence would be a secondary home when they allege James knew she would use it as an investment property.
According to the indictment, James received a lower mortgage rate on the property as a secondary mortgage than she would have had it been treated as an investment property. Prosecutors allege James received improper gains of $18,933 over the life of the loan.
Her first court appearance is scheduled for October 24 in Norfolk.
She has also been under investigation since May over a separate mortgage she took out to buy another home in Norfolk in 2023. James co-signed for that property and filed a notarized power of attorney on August 17, 2023, declaring under oath that she “intended to occupy this property as her principal residence.”
At the time, however, James was legally domiciled in Brooklyn, New York, serving as state Attorney General. She is accused of falsely claiming the home as her primary residence to secure better mortgage rates.
James’ other ne’er-do-well grandniece, Cayla Hairston, 21, lives in that house.
Despite her young age, Cayla Hairston reportedly already has an extensive criminal record.
Cayla Hairston has multiple arrests on her record, including a felony charge for violating Virginia’s law prohibiting firearm possession by convicted felons (Virginia Code §18.2-308.2) and felon in possession. This indicates that Cayla must have had a prior felony conviction, likely when she was under 18 because no records are available online.
Cayla was also charged with making a false statement on criminal history consent form when purchasing a firearm, and this is a serious offense. This form is required by Virginia law for individuals purchasing firearms from dealers. If a person willfully and intentionally makes a materially false statement on this form, they are guilty of a Class 5 felony, which can result in up to 10 years of imprisonment
Cayla was arrested again in June 2024 for grand larceny, a charge later reduced to petit larceny. She received a suspended jail sentence and was fined $539.
The Daily Mail detailed Thompson’s extensive criminal record in Virginia and North Carolina:
In 2005 she was placed on probation in Forsyth County, North Carolina, for simple assault, and the following year was handed a suspended sentence for two counts of assault against a government official, according to NCDC.
In 2011, she was given a suspended sentence for assault and battery and second-degree trespass, again by a court in Forsyth County.
This appears to have been the offense for which Thompson became an ‘absconder
According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections website, around 80,000 people in the state are serving community ‘supervision’ meaning they had a probation sentence or a term of parole.
When absconders are caught they may face a ‘variety of consequences ranging from extension or revocation of their probation to a possible return to prison for those serving parole or post-release supervision requirements,’ the website states.
Despite fleeing her criminal history in North Carolina, Thompson continued having issues with the law after moving to Virginia. In August 2019 she was arrested on grand larceny and petit larceny charges and given two years’ probation and ordered to pay $2,020 in costs after pleading guilty. She was also charged with possession of burglary tools – a felony – but that charge was dropped.
Virginia court records state that she faced more than a dozen driving cases including speeding, driving with her license revoked and a safety belt violation.
In June last year she was found guilty in absentia and fined $50 for failing to have a proper child restraint in her car. In July this year, she was charged with four misdemeanors in a single day.
She was fined $244 and ordered to pay $101 in costs for doing 80 mph in a 55mph zone. Thompson admitted improperly stopping a vehicle on a highway and was ordered to pay another $45 in fines and costs. She was also found guilty of failing to have her vehicle inspected and having an expired registration.
Among the other matters she has dealt with are marijuana possession – which was dismissed – and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The charge often relates to actions or inactions by a parent that allow their child to get into trouble with the law, e.g., staying out past curfew and being arrested. In Thompson’s case, the charges were eventually dismissed.
In May 2025, James claimed in a speech before the Association for a Better New York that she was just being a “good aunt” by helping her niece and her “children.”
But both of her Virginia tenants are perpetually offending adults, moreover, providing a hide-out for a fugitive is a crime.
“If she does not turn in Nikia Monique Thompson, Letitia James herself could be charged with harboring a fugitive,” according to conservative journalist Joel Gilbert.
And, because it involves interstate flight, James could be subject to federal harboring law which carries up to 5 years in prison.
Under VA Code § 18.2-472, if someone escapes from custody and you harbor them, you can be charged. Harboring in Virginia could make you an accessory after the fact. The penalty for Letitia James would qualify as a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a punishment of up to 12 months jail and a $2,500 fine.
The Daily Mail noted that as New York’s Attorney General, James has championed her efforts to bring fugitives to justice, “including the extradition from Pakistan of a Medicaid fraud ringleader.”
Bit according to Gilbert, she herself has engaged in a systematic pattern of fraud going back many decades.
“Letitia James probably should not have been charging Donald Trump with trumped-up charges of mortgage fraud in New York, given the fact that New York is a public record state and that all of her mortgages for 43 years were online for myself or anybody else to pull up,” Gilbert said during an appearance on Real America’s Voice. He said her alleged mortgage fraud crimes date all the way back to 1983, when James was 24 years old. “She purchased her first home with her father, claiming that her father was her husband,” he said. “They purchased it as husband and wife in order to help Letitia qualify for a mortgage that she was not entitled to.”
The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the N.Y. AG in August for alleged malicious targeting of her political enemies.
In her civil case against President Trump, James had accused him of inflating his net worth to get a good deal on loans and other financial benefits.
Trump-hating Judge Engoron ruled in her favor and ordered the Trump Organization to pay a $454 million bond, prompting George Washington University law Professor Jonathan Turley to call it “absurdly out of line with not just the purpose of the law but the facts of the case.”
A New York Appeals Court later reduced Trump’s bond to $175 million, which he paid on March 31, 2024. An appeals court eventually threw out the entire financial penalty.
“Letitia James declared yesterday that her indictment is ‘nothing more than a desperate weaponization of our justice system,’ Turley noted on X Tuesday. “It is like Katie Porter objecting to a hostile workplace. The fact that the audience applauded rather than laughed is the ultimate test of rage politics.”