The prosecution traced Devon Williams’ killing from an argument in Bay City to a sentencing hearing in Saginaw County nearly three years later.
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The killing of Devon Williams unfolded in a matter of minutes inside a Michigan duplex in March 2023, but the case that followed stretched over years and ended with a life-without-parole sentence for Indiana defendant Zakeem F. Jones.
What made the case stand out was not only the fatal shooting itself, but the way prosecutors laid out the path to it: an argument between a couple, messages to an ex-partner, a drive across mid-Michigan, a gun brought to a home where children were present and a flight out of state afterward. By the time Jones was sentenced in March 2026, the case had become a layered account of how a domestic dispute turned into a homicide prosecution with one defendant convicted and another still awaiting her own outcome.
The timeline prosecutors described began March 29, 2023, when Jones and his then-fiancee, Markeisha R. Burns-Cross, came from Indiana to Michigan for a family event. The night moved to Bay City, where Burns-Cross later testified the two had been drinking when an argument started over Jones speaking with other women. Angry, she began texting Williams, with whom she had previously been in a relationship and shared a child. Public accounts of the trial say Jones then saw the messages, got upset and told Burns-Cross to continue the contact. Instead of ending the dispute there, the pair drove to the duplex where Williams was staying in Buena Vista Township. Prosecutors later used that sequence to argue planning, not impulse.
At the house on Walters Drive, the state said, Williams was babysitting children. Jones, armed with a 9 mm handgun, first stayed outside and demanded that Burns-Cross get Williams to come out. When that did not happen, he followed her inside. A prosecutor told jurors that Williams was sitting at a table, looked up and immediately reacted when he saw Jones. Burns-Cross testified she then heard “pop, pop, pop” and felt heat pass in front of her face. Prosecutors said Williams tried to flee but could not because the front door was locked. He was later found wounded on the floor and taken to a hospital, where he died. Early local reporting placed the police response at about 3:40 p.m. on March 30, 2023. Authorities initially said they had no suspect in custody.
The investigation moved in visible steps after that. In July 2023, Burns-Cross was arrested and charged in connection with the killing. Local radio reporting said police believed she and Williams had a child together and that investigators considered the death planned with another suspect who was then jailed in another state. Jones was not arrested until September 2024, when authorities took him into custody as he was being released from prison in Illinois on an unrelated matter. He was extradited to Michigan. The time between the homicide and Jones’ arrest became one of the striking features of the case, showing how a serious local killing could remain unresolved in open court for more than a year while one defendant was elsewhere in custody.
When the case finally reached trial in January 2026, prosecutors framed Jones as the gunman and Burns-Cross as the person who helped set up the encounter. Public summaries say Jones was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and multiple firearm-related felonies. The record visible in public reporting does not fully show what the defense argued on every point, but the prosecution’s theory turned on the texts, the travel to the duplex, the weapon and the claim that Williams was unarmed and caught off guard. Investigators also recovered shell casings and bullet fragments, physical evidence that helped anchor the witness testimony. The courtroom narrative was therefore built from both digital contact and crime-scene evidence, with Burns-Cross herself testifying for the prosecution even though her own case remained open.
The last public chapter so far came at sentencing on March 25, 2026, in Saginaw County Circuit Court. Judge Andre R. Borrello ordered Jones to serve life without the possibility of parole. The court also imposed three consecutive two-year terms tied to firearm offenses and ordered a $1,218 fine. Jones spoke briefly, saying, “I’m cool, man. It is what it is.” Williams’ mother, Shontele Lockett, answered that tone with a statement of her own, urging the judge to give the maximum punishment and saying Jones had shown no remorse. Applause broke out after the sentence, an unusual burst of feeling after a case defined for years by paperwork, transfers and delayed court dates.
The remaining unknown is how Burns-Cross’s case will end and whether any additional courtroom testimony will add to the public account of what happened before the shooting. Her charges include first-degree murder, and earlier reports said she had been expected in court in April 2026 for a settlement conference. Public search results available here do not clearly show what happened at or after that setting, so the next procedural milestone is not fully confirmed in open reporting. What is clear is that the prosecution of Jones has finished at the trial court level, while the broader story of accountability in Williams’ death has not yet completely run its course.
Author note: Last updated April 17, 2026.