Jameisha Wilkes, a 33-year-old Black woman remembered as quiet, kind, and funny, was killed on the afternoon of November 13, 2024. At approximately 3:30 p.m., Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call at the Ascent at Mallard Creek Apartments on Strive Street in northeast Charlotte, North Carolina. They discovered Ms. Wilkes in a stairwell suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency medical personnel pronounced her deceased at the scene.
She left behind a 7-year-old daughter, who her mother said was her life.
The investigation quickly identified 32-year-old Dasean Vaughntane Maddox as a suspect. According to court documents, Maddox confessed to a family member that he had been unfaithful and had impregnated Ms. Wilkes. He admitted to driving to her apartment, shooting her, and taking her cell phone, which he later attempted to destroy by running it over with his vehicle. Maddox was apprehended later that day in Cabarrus County and transported to Charlotte for questioning. He was subsequently charged with murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon and booked into the Mecklenburg County Jail, where a judge denied him bond.
The day after the shooting, detectives learned that Ms. Wilkes was pregnant at the time of her death. As a result, on November 25, 2024, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office presented the case to a grand jury, which returned an additional charge against Maddox for the murder of an unborn child. Prosecutors later stated in court that Maddox killed Ms. Wilkes after she encouraged him to tell his wife about their affair and her pregnancy.
On September 4, 2025, Dasean Maddox pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, murder of an unborn child, and robbery with a dangerous weapon. In court, he addressed Ms. Wilkes’s family, saying, “I’m sorry to the victim, Miss Wilkes’ family, for taking the life of your loved one.” He asked the judge for mercy in sentencing so that he might one day share his testimony with others.
A judge sentenced Maddox to serve a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 31 years in prison. While Ms. Wilkes’s family expressed that nothing could bring her back, her mother, Deidra Howard, remembered her as caring, quirky, and “the best mother that she could be.” In the wake of her death, friends organized a GoFundMe campaign to support her young daughter. The case was officially closed with Maddox’s conviction and sentencing in September 2025.
