In the winter of 2021, the life of a young, expectant mother was violently taken in Jackson, Mississippi. Keyunta McWilliams, a 23-year-old Black female, was eight months pregnant when she was killed on the evening of December 15, 2021.
That Wednesday, at approximately 8:30 p.m., McWilliams was driving on Beasley Road with her boyfriend, Knowledge Wigley, and his two-year-old son. They had just left the 21 Flavors gas station, where Wigley had gotten into an argument with a man named Joseph Brown over the price of marijuana. After McWilliams and her family drove away, Brown and several others pursued them in a silver BMW with a Texas license plate. Near Brownlee Drive, the pursuers opened fire on McWilliams' vehicle. She was shot multiple times, and both she and her unborn child were pronounced dead at the scene. Her boyfriend and his son were not injured.
The investigation moved quickly.
Using surveillance footage from the gas station, Jackson police tracked the suspects to a house on Kenmore Drive just hours after the shooting. There, they found the BMW used in the attack along with two other vehicles that had been reported stolen in carjackings. Authorities arrested five individuals: Joseph Brown, who was 17 at the time; Kenya Webster, 22; Marzavier Z. Harrington, 23; Antonio Esco; and Gary Taylor, 34. Police officials noted that Brown was also a suspect in at least five other homicides that had occurred in Jackson.
All five men were charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of Keyunta McWilliams and her unborn child, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of a drive-by shooting, and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle.
In January 2026, Kenya Webster's trial began in Hinds County Circuit Court. Prosecutors argued that Webster was targeting McWilliams' boyfriend when he fired an assault rifle into the car. During the trial, a recording of Webster confessing to the shooting was presented. A jury found him guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to double life sentences for his role in the deaths.
Two months later, in March 2026, Joseph Brown was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and a drive-by shooting. He was sentenced to consecutive prison terms, receiving 30 years for the murder of McWilliams, 30 years for the murder of her unborn child, 20 years for each count of aggravated assault, and 30 years for the drive-by shooting.
