In the late afternoon of February 22, 2018, Keiauna Davis, a 27-year-old single mother of two, was walking home from her job at a Dollar General in Wilkinsburg, a borough just east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had her recently received $3,000 tax refund with her, money she was planning to use to move with her young daughters to North Carolina to be closer to her mother. Tragically, she would never complete that journey. As she walked along Laketon Road, a car pulled up, and a man emerged, fatally shooting her in what police would later describe as a robbery gone horribly wrong.
The investigation into the death of the young, female, mother quickly revealed a sinister plot orchestrated by someone close to her. Her co-worker, Laya Whitley, then 21, had learned about the tax refund and conspired with two men, Dane Taylor, 21, and Kaijin Scott, 23, to rob Davis. Whitley sent text messages to Taylor, informing him that Davis was carrying a significant amount of cash. Scott drove the vehicle, and Taylor was the one who confronted and ultimately shot Davis. After a struggle for her purse, Taylor shot her in the hip, severing a major artery. Davis was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed to her injuries.
All three suspects were apprehended shortly after the murder and charged with homicide and robbery. In July 2019, Laya Whitley and Dane Taylor pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy. Whitley was sentenced to 20 to 50 years in prison, while Taylor received a sentence of 30 to 60 years. The third suspect, Kaijin Scott, the getaway driver, was found guilty of second-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy in a jury trial in August 2021. He was subsequently sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in prison, with an additional 12 to 24 years.
