Background: News footage from the Newbury Park, Calif., neighborhood where a teenager was killed on Dec. 5, 2024 (KTLA). Inset: Zuberi Sharp (Ventura County District Attorney).
A California man has admitted to killing his teenage half-brother with a pickaxe while the two were in a shed behind their home.
Zuberi Sharp, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Monday in connection with the violent death of his 15-year-old half-brother, Zayde Koehohou, on Dec. 5, 2024. In a press release announcing the plea, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office said Sharp and Zayde were both in a converted shed at the family's home in Newbury Park, California, when their uncle said he heard a "thud" as he walked to the shed to "check on the boys."
The uncle entered the shed to find "Sharp standing over Zayde holding a pickaxe."
Before deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office arrived at the home after the boys' mother, Jante Keohohou, called 911 around 8 p.m., Sharp fled the scene. He was arrested after police found him at a nearby high school. Sharp was naked and wielding the ax he used to kill Zayde.
When deputies arrived, Zayde's mother was cradling her son in her lap. Zayde, who had cerebral palsy, suffered from several severe wounds to his head. He died before he reached the hospital.
According to local CW affiliate KTLA, Sharp apparently suffered from mental issues and had to be rescued from a storm drain hours before he killed Zayde. In an interview with local news outlet Thousand Oaks Acorn about a month after the crime, Keohohou said her older son "didn't know what he was doing" and Sharp "loves his brothers, my boys loved each other."
KTLA reported that Sharp is the son of a convicted murderer, Calvin Sharp, who killed a 6-year-old boy with a meat cleaver in 2007.
Sharp pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as well as the special circumstances added to the charges, including the attack on a vulnerable person. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.
Comments