Jessica Williams, a 27-year-old Black/African American mother of three, was described by those who knew her as a "light for a lot of people." On the evening of July 19, 2019, concern grew when she failed to pick up her infant from daycare in Saint Paul, Minnesota. An emergency contact went to her home on Charles Avenue, where Jessica's two older children let the person inside.
A grim discovery of blood in the kitchen prompted an immediate call to the police.
Responding officers followed a trail of blood to the basement, where they found Jessica’s body at the bottom of the stairs. A shirt had been placed over her face. An autopsy later determined she had died of blood loss from five to six gunshot wounds to her scalp, neck, and upper body. Investigators recovered spent .22 caliber shell casings in the living room and kitchen. The two children who had been in the house at the time of the shooting were physically unharmed.
The investigation quickly focused on Shakee Shabazz Miller-Brantley, Jessica's 28-year-old ex-boyfriend, whom her children knew as "Shabash." Jessica had recently ended their five-month relationship and asked him to move out of her home. Miller-Brantley was arrested the following day at his mother's house. He confessed to the killing, telling police that he and Jessica had argued after she asked him to return a gun. He claimed he feared she had a weapon in a bag and shot her multiple times in the hallway as she backed away from him. He admitted he later found no gun in her bag. He said he moved her body to the basement and covered her face so her children would not have to see her, then fled in her vehicle.
Miller-Brantley was charged with second-degree murder. The case was delayed when he was found incompetent to stand trial in October 2019 due to a history of severe mental illness, including schizophrenia. He was later ruled competent in February 2020. At trial, his defense asserted both self-defense and mental illness.
In November 2022, a judge rejected the self-defense claim, and a jury subsequently found Shakee Shabazz Miller-Brantley guilty of second-degree murder. On January 20, 2023, he was sentenced to 18 years, or 216 months, in prison. He was given credit for the three and a half years he had already served in custody.
