In the early hours of July 18, 2023, a trip to a party store in Livonia, Michigan, turned fatal for 27-year-old Markayla Sadler. An argument that began inside the store at approximately 12:53 a.m. quickly escalated and spilled out into the parking lot. The verbal dispute between Sadler and another woman, identified as 24-year-old Lania Julieah Conn of Detroit, turned into a physical altercation.
The fight took a deadly turn when Conn allegedly produced a handgun and fired, striking
Sadler in the head. Markayla Sadler, a resident of Redford, was found by Livonia police officers in the parking lot and was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident, which reportedly started over a simple bump inside the store, left Sadler's young son without a mother.
Following the shooting, Conn and a male companion fled the scene. Another man, 25-year-old Cory Leniel Campbell of Detroit, who was an acquaintance of Sadler, reportedly returned fire at Conn and her companion. Both Conn and her acquaintance sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were later treated at a hospital and released.
Lania Julieah Conn was subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree murder and felony firearm. Cory Leniel Campbell was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon, as his license had expired. In March 2024, Lania Conn pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to three to fifteen years in prison for the death of Markayla Sadler. She received an additional two-year sentence for the felony firearm charge. In December of the previous year, Cory Leniel Campbell was sentenced to two years of probation for the concealed weapon charge.
