Mother of Erick Haynes charged as accomplice in murder of Zaria McKeever
MINNEAPOLIS — The mother of the man who orchestrated the 2022 killing of 23-year-old Zaria McKeever has been charged as an accomplice to the murder, according to a complaint filed in Hennepin County on Wednesday.
Erick Haynes was sentenced to life in prison in April for the murder of McKeever, the mother of his 1-year-old child.
Haynes brought a gun to McKeever's Brooklyn Park apartment on Nov. 8, 2022, and ordered two teenage brothers to kill her new boyfriend, as well as McKeever herself if she got in the way. The teens kicked in the apartment door and McKeever's new boyfriend jumped out the window.
One of the teens, Foday Kamara, who was 15 at the time, shot McKeever nine times and accidentally shot his brother in the foot.
Two other adults — Eriana Haynes and Tavion James — were also convicted of charges related to helping after the homicide. The two minors charged in the case took plea deals outside of court. Kamara was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
Haynes' mother, Valesha Parker, was charged Wednesday with four felony counts of aiding an offender.
Charges say Parker had been living at the Extended Stay Hotel in Brooklyn Center where police found the murder weapon. She allegedly told police she had been in her hotel room the day of the murder when her daughter Eriana Haynes and James returned to the hotel.
Parker says Haynes had called her, saying he was in Fridley and that McKeever had been shot. She then went to pick him up, leaving behind James and Eriana Haynes. However, phone records reveal the two did not have contact, charges allege.
Parker also stated to police that she did not know that her daughter had left the hotel to take Kamara's brother to the hospital.
In a second interview, law enforcement told Parker that Eriana Haynes and Kamara had been found in her hotel room, to which she allegedly responded, "Where the hell did he come from? There nobody in that room besides my daughter and Tavion."
Kamara, however, later told investigators that Parker had been present when Eriana Haynes and James let him into the hotel room. After Eriana Haynes and James left for the hospital, Kamara says he told Parker that he had shot McKeever. He also alleges Parker had overheard the conversation with Haynes about hiding the murder weapon in the wheel well of a vehicle at the hotel.
Kamara was originally offered a plea deal by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who wanted him and his brother to undergo rehabilitation instead of serving time in prison. McKeever's family was outraged and successfully lobbied Gov. Tim Walz to intervene and reroute the case to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison without Moriarty's approval — a move that hadn't occurred in the state for nearly three decades. Moriarty called Walz's decision "undemocratic."