Teenager sentenced to 130 months in prison for Zaria McKeever's murder
MINNEAPOLIS — The youngest person charged in the death of 23-year-old Zaria McKeever was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 10 years in prison.
Seventeen-year-old Foday Kamara was only 15 when he fatally shot McKeever inside her Brooklyn Park apartment on Nov. 8, 2022.
Erick Haynes, McKeever's ex-boyfriend and the father of her young child, was sentenced to life in prison last month for orchestrating the murder.
According to the criminal complaint, Kamara told investigators Haynes gave him a gun and ordered him and his brother John Kamara, who was 17 at the time, to scare McKeever's new boyfriend.
Foday Kamara said after he entered McKeever's apartment, she approached him with a knife. He then shot her nine times and accidentally shot his brother in the foot. McKeever's boyfriend fled the apartment through a window and called 911.
Foday Kamara pleaded guilty last month as part of a plea deal that saw him testify against two other adults involved in exchange for the dismissal of a second charge against him. He chose not to speak during Wednesday's sentencing hearing but did apologize through his attorney.
The judge highlighted Foday Kamara's youth and the coercion used by Haynes for the downward sentencing of 130 months instead of 300 months. John Kamara was recently sentenced to two years in a juvenile correction facility.
Members of McKeever's family spoke after the hearing. Aunt Virginia Taylor said while they're glad he was tried as an adult, they're still frustrated at the idea that he was too young to know better.
"He had plenty of time to think about his actions. He had plenty of time to remove himself from the situation," Taylor said. "We should not all be victimized and fall short because he had not had the proper guidance."
"They're trying to say he was manipulated," said Georgia Davis, McKeever's cousin. "At some point, you've got to take some kind of accountability. At some point it shouldn't just be a slap on the wrist. You took somebody's life."
Foday 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," and the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild expressed its outrage, saying his actions were "based on political expedience."
