Inset (left): Markeisha Burns-Cross (Saginaw County Sheriff's Office). Inset (right): Devon L. Williams (Facebook). Background: The Saginaw County Governmental Center in Saginaw, Mich. (Google Maps).
An Indiana woman will spend at least a decade behind bars for her role in the murder of her former partner.
Markeisha Burns-Cross, 27, was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison after she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in April. Burns-Cross had been accused of driving her then-boyfriend, 26-year-old Zakeem Jones, to gun down her ex-boyfriend and father of her child, 33-year-old Devon L. Williams, at his home in Michigan on March 29, 2023. As Law&Crime previously reported, Burns-Cross and Jones had an argument after a night of drinking, reportedly over Jones' conversations with other women.
Burns-Cross, who testified against Jones at his murder trial, told the court that in response, she made plans to meet with Williams. What followed was a sequence of events that ended the life of Williams, a father of five children.
Jones looked through Burns-Cross' phone and saw the texts she exchanged with Williams. He became enraged and told Burns-Cross to make plans to travel from Indiana to meet Williams, and Jones planned to come with her.
When the couple arrived at Williams' duplex in Buena Vista Township, Michigan, Jones wielded a 9 mm handgun as they approached the door. He demanded that Burns-Cross lure Williams outside. When that did not happen, Jones followed Burns-Cross in after she entered the home.
Williams, who was with several children in the home, was sitting at a table when the couple came inside. Upon seeing Jones in his home, Williams tried to escape, but the front door was locked. Jones then fired several shots at Williams, who collapsed to the floor and died.
"Devon Williams was unarmed in his own home and had no idea what was coming," the prosecutor said. "He lost a battle he didn't know he was fighting … in a cold-blooded, premeditated ambush."
Prosecutors said the killing was fueled by jealousy, arguing Jones sought to "obliterate the competition" after discovering the messages between his fiancee and her former partner.
Burns-Cross and Jones then fled back to Indiana.
Jones was at large until September 2024, when he was extradited to Michigan after being released from prison in Illinois. He was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and multiple firearm-related felonies and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Burns-Cross was arrested in July 2023 and charged with first-degree murder and felony weapons charges, which were dropped when she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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