In the summer of 2020, the life of 20-year-old Kalani Hayter was tragically cut short. On the morning of July 7th, Denver police responded to a call about an abandoned vehicle on West 8th Avenue. Inside the car, they made a grim discovery: the body of a young woman, later identified as Hayter. She had been fatally shot, and her death was immediately investigated as a homicide.
The vehicle she was found in, a red Chevrolet Avalanche, had been reported stolen at gunpoint the previous night
in the Montbello neighborhood. Initially, the suspects in the carjacking were described as two men in their late teens or early 20s. However, investigators later determined that Hayter was not the victim of the carjacking but was believed to have been a passenger in the suspect vehicle after the initial crime.
The investigation into her death led police to her apartment, where another tragic discovery was made: the bodies of two teenagers, 14-year-old Xavier Collier and 15-year-old Moses Harris, who had also been shot and killed. This discovery deepened the complexity of the case, linking Hayter's death to a wider web of violence that had unfolded in the preceding days.
Eventually, a suspect was identified in connection with Hayter's death. Jayque Owens, who was 16 years old at the time of the crimes, was arrested. Investigators believed he was involved in a shooting that occurred on July 5th, just two days before Hayter's body was found. Police connected him to Hayter, believing she was in the car with him the night of the earlier shooting. In May 2023, at the age of 18, Owens pleaded guilty to the second-degree murders of both Kalani Hayter and another victim, 23-year-old Yaun Yae Long, who was killed in the July 5th shooting. He was sentenced to 58 years in prison for his role in the deaths that had shaken the Denver community.
