The woman who brought the gunman to the Buena Vista Township home has been sentenced to 10 to 30 years.
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Several children were inside a Michigan home when an armed man followed his girlfriend through the door and fatally shot the father of her child, a killing that has now produced two prison sentences.
The children’s presence formed the backdrop of the March 2023 attack on Devon L. Williams, 33, who was reportedly caring for them when Zakeem F. Jones entered the duplex. Jones is serving life without parole for first-degree murder. Markeisha Burns-Cross, the woman who traveled with him and entered the home first, has received 10 to 30 years after pleading no contest to second-degree murder. The sentencing closes the trial-court phase of a case built around jealousy, interstate flight and testimony from one defendant against the other.
Williams was sitting at a table when danger entered the residence. Prosecutors said Jones had armed himself with a 9 mm handgun before approaching the home on Walters Drive. Jones wanted Burns-Cross to bring Williams outside, but Williams remained indoors. Burns-Cross went through the door, and Jones followed her. When Williams looked up and saw him, a prosecutor told jurors, his face changed. Williams moved toward the front door, but the door was locked. Jones fired several times. Burns-Cross later testified that she heard repeated popping sounds and felt heat in front of her face. Police recovered shell casings and bullet fragments. Williams was found on the floor having difficulty breathing and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The attack brought adult conflict into a space where children had been gathered under Williams’ care. Public reports have not identified the children, given their exact ages or described everything they witnessed. The available accounts establish that several were in the home when the shooting occurred. Prosecutors did not portray the residence as the site of a planned meeting between Jones and Williams. Instead, they said Jones arrived without Williams knowing that an armed confrontation was coming. Williams had no weapon, and no reported evidence showed that he had threatened Jones. His effort to reach the door came only after he realized that Jones had entered the house.
The path to that room began hours earlier and more than 200 miles away from the couple’s Indiana home. Jones and Burns-Cross had traveled to mid-Michigan for a family event. During the evening of March 29, 2023, they drank in Bay City and argued, according to Burns-Cross’ later testimony. She said the disagreement involved Jones communicating with other women. Burns-Cross then began exchanging messages with Williams, her former partner and the father of one of her children. She and Williams made plans to meet. Jones searched Burns-Cross’ phone and found the conversation. Prosecutors said his anger shifted toward Williams, whom he had not known personally but began to view as a rival.
After seeing the messages, Jones ordered Burns-Cross to continue the proposed meeting, according to the state’s account. What had begun as Burns-Cross’ response to an argument became the route by which Jones could locate Williams. Burns-Cross drove with Jones to the Buena Vista Township duplex. Prosecutors later used her decisions during that period to establish that her role extended beyond being a bystander to the shooting. She participated in the communications, traveled to the address and went inside while Jones waited with a handgun. The prosecution described the resulting attack as a cold-blooded ambush designed to eliminate romantic competition. Williams, the state said, did not know that Jones had placed him in such a contest.
Jones and Burns-Cross left the residence after the gunfire and returned to Indiana. The children remained part of a scene now occupied by police, emergency workers and evidence from a fatal shooting. Williams’ death also left five children without their father. Court accounts have focused mainly on the actions of the defendants and the evidence used to prove the charges, leaving many personal details about Williams and the children outside the public record. Even so, the setting shaped the prosecution’s presentation. Williams was not armed on a street or meeting Jones for a fight. He was inside, seated at a table and responsible for children when Jones came through the door.
The defendants’ paths separated after they fled. Authorities arrested Burns-Cross in July 2023 and charged her with first-degree murder and firearm-related offenses. Jones remained at large from Michigan authorities for more than a year. In September 2024, officials took custody of him as he was released from an Illinois prison on an unrelated case. He was extradited to Saginaw County. His later arrest meant prosecutors could proceed with his case while the charges against Burns-Cross were still pending. Burns-Cross eventually became a central witness against the man who had been her boyfriend and fiancé at the time of the killing.
At Jones’ trial, Burns-Cross supplied the jury with details that physical evidence alone could not explain. She described the argument in Bay City, her messages to Williams, Jones’ discovery of those messages and the drive to the duplex. She also placed Jones inside the home with the gun and described the shooting from only a few feet away. Her testimony did not come under a completed plea agreement. At that stage, she still faced five charges, including first-degree murder, and could not know with certainty how her cooperation would affect her own case. Jurors convicted Jones in January 2026 of first-degree premeditated murder and multiple firearm felonies.
Saginaw County Circuit Judge Andre R. Borrello sentenced Jones in March to life in prison without parole, the mandatory result of the first-degree murder conviction. The judge added three consecutive two-year terms for firearm offenses and ordered Jones to pay $1,218. Williams’ mother, Shontele Lockett, appeared by video and asked for the harshest sentence. She told the court that Jones had killed a man he did not know and had shown no remorse. Jones reinforced that criticism when he declined to offer an apology and said, “I’m cool, man. It is what it is.” Applause came from the gallery after the judge imposed the sentence.
Burns-Cross returned to court in April and pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. Her original first-degree murder and weapons charges were dropped as part of the resolution. The no-contest plea allowed the court to enter a conviction without requiring her to repeat a full factual confession. It also removed the risk of a first-degree murder verdict and mandatory life sentence. Second-degree murder carries a broad sentencing range in Michigan, allowing the court to impose a minimum and maximum term. The judge set Burns-Cross’ punishment at 10 to 30 years, making her eligible for possible parole review only after she serves the required minimum, subject to any credit and corrections calculations.
The different sentences reflect the separate roles established in court. Jones carried the gun, entered the home and fired the shots that killed Williams. Burns-Cross communicated with Williams, transported Jones to the address and created access to the victim and the residence. Her testimony helped secure the gunman’s conviction, but prosecutors continued to hold her criminally responsible for helping set the fatal events in motion. The plea recognized second-degree murder rather than treating her conduct only as assisting a fugitive or concealing evidence after the fact. The court’s sentence ensures that her role will result in at least a decade of incarceration.
The criminal proceedings answered who would be punished, but they disclosed little about the children’s lives after the gunfire. Their names remain outside the reports, as do details about counseling, family arrangements or whether any child testified. Those unknowns are distinct from the facts established in court. Children were present. Williams was caring for them. An armed man entered unexpectedly, and Williams had no open exit when he tried to flee. The shooting transformed a place of ordinary supervision into a homicide scene and exposed several young people to the immediate consequences of a dispute that began between adults elsewhere.
With both defendants sentenced, Jones remains imprisoned for life and Burns-Cross has begun a term of 10 to 30 years. Any appeals or future parole proceedings will not alter the immediate result: both people accused of bringing the violence into the home are now serving prison sentences.
Author note: Last updated July 12, 2026.