Charges: Shakee Shabazz Miller-Brantley Shot, Killed Mother Of 3 In St. Paul Home
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 28-year-old man has been charged with murder after police say he shot and killed a mother of three Friday in St. Paul.
According to the criminal complaint, Shakee Shabazz Miller-Brantley was charged Monday with second-degree murder. The offense carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
The investigation began when a 911 call came in just before 9:30 p.m. to report a mother, identified by St. Paul police as 27-year-old Jessica Williams, had not picked up her children from daycare, and she was not answering the door of her house on the 500 block of Charles Avenue. Officers arrived to find Williams, who they described as "gravely injured." She was later pronounced dead at the scene. Officers also found two children in the home, who were not hurt.
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The complaint states Miller-Brantley had met Williams at school and they had been together for about five months. He had also been staying with her and her children at their St. Paul home for about the same amount of time.
He told police Williams had recently been "talking crazy," and talking to other men. He said on Friday, Williams had asked him to return a gun she had given him and told him that if he didn't return it, she would call police or kill him. He said they argued about whose gun it was, and Williams had her hand in a bag, threatening to shoot him with another gun. He told police, "This is the girl if I don't kill her first she's gonna kill me."
He said Williams told him to go get the gun, and that she "broke his heart."
That's when he said he shot Williams in the front hallway of the home near the entrance to the kitchen. He carried her downstairs 20 minutes later, and put a shirt over her face. He claimed he "didn't want to do it" but she kept talking to him "like a kid." An autopsy revealed Miller-Brantley had shot Williams five to six times.
Miller-Brantley opened the bag Williams had been reaching in, but did not recover any weapons. After he carried her body to the basement, he said he packed up his clothes, took the keys to Williams' vehicle and drove to his mother's home about a mile away.
Investigators arrested Miller-Brantley there Saturday morning.
Officer's spoke to Miller-Brantley's mother, who told them her son was a paranoid schizophrenic and is not currently taking his medication. She said he came home Friday, crying, with a bag of belongings. Both his mother and another witness at the home said Miller-Brantley "acted weirdly all night," pacing back and forth, looking out the windows and mumbling to himself.
Police recovered a Ruger .22 caliber handgun from a kitchen drawer in Miller-Brantley's mother's home, and a pair of shoes containing blood stains that matched bloody shoe prints from the murder scene.
Miller-Brantley has three prior felony convictions, including aggravated robbery, assault and financial transaction card fraud. He is currently being held in the Ramsey County Jail.