Alexus Williams pleaded guilty to three murder counts nearly five years after a Houston family was attacked inside its apartment.

HOUSTON, Texas — A woman accused for years of helping set in motion an attack that killed her former girlfriend, the woman’s husband and their 6-year-old daughter has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after accepting a plea agreement that reduced three capital murder charges to murder.

Alexus Chenelle Williams, 33, pleaded guilty in the deaths of Donyavia Lagway, 29, Gregory Carhee, 35, and their daughter Harmony Carhee, 6. The agreement brought Williams’ case to a close more than five years after the family was attacked on June 30, 2021, at an apartment on Fondren Road in southwest Houston. Williams had faced the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder at trial. Her plea came after the gunman, Xavier Davis, admitted killing the three victims and was sentenced to death by a Harris County jury in 2025.

The killings began as the family was at home shortly before 10:35 p.m., according to Houston police and testimony later presented in court. Davis entered after Gregory Carhee opened the door. Lagway, Carhee and Harmony were shot and died inside the apartment. A 10-year-old daughter was also shot in the arm but survived. A 1-year-old child who was inside was not wounded, while another child was away from the apartment. Police said the wounded girl remained still until the gunman left and then contacted relatives, leading her grandmother to call for help. Houston officers and paramedics arrived to find three people dead and the surviving girl badly wounded.

Investigators identified Davis within a day. Houston police said he was taken into custody July 1, 2021, on an unrelated family violence case and then charged with three counts of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Later court testimony described evidence connecting him to the attack, including cash found after his arrest and a vehicle prosecutors said was obtained before the shooting and used to reach the apartment. Prosecutors also said the vehicle was later burned in Pearland. The investigation eventually produced a murder case in which Davis acknowledged killing Lagway, Carhee and Harmony rather than contesting guilt before a jury.

Williams was not arrested at the same time. Prosecutors said detectives suspected another person had helped direct Davis but continued gathering evidence for months before filing charges. Williams knew Davis from childhood and had previously been in a relationship with Lagway. Prosecutors said the relationship had ended shortly before the killings and that Williams knew where the family lived. Investigators later focused on communications between Williams and Davis and on allegations that she directed him to the apartment with the expectation that money could be taken from the home. Williams was arrested in March 2022, about eight months after the shooting, and initially faced three capital murder charges as well as an aggravated assault allegation connected with the wounded child.

The prosecution and defense ultimately offered different descriptions of what Williams intended. Prosecutors characterized her as the person who selected the family and directed Davis to them, arguing that the killings would not have happened without her involvement. Earlier reports said authorities believed Williams recruited Davis for the attack and that the end of her relationship with Lagway was part of the case against her. Her attorneys disputed the claim that she planned a triple killing. They said she had discussed a robbery with Davis but did not intend for him to murder the family. That distinction never went before a jury because Williams eventually accepted the reduced charges and admitted guilt to three counts of murder.

Evidence about a video call became another significant part of the case. Law enforcement and court-based reporting said Williams and Davis communicated by FaceTime during the episode, although accounts have differed on precisely what Williams could see. Some reports based on court records said she watched the attack unfold. Other reporting from Davis’ later trial said investigators believed she may have watched either the killings or the immediate aftermath through a video call. The distinction did not change the charges Davis faced, but prosecutors cited Williams’ communications with him as part of the evidence tying her to the crime. Text messages between the two were also described as important to the investigation.

Davis’ case reached its conclusion first. He pleaded guilty to capital murder in March 2025 as his trial began, leaving a jury to decide punishment. After weeks of evidence in the penalty phase, jurors sentenced him to death on April 17, 2025. The surviving daughter, who had been 10 at the time of the shooting, testified during the proceedings as a teenager. Her account gave jurors a firsthand description of what happened inside the apartment. Davis’ lawyers argued for a sentence that would spare his life, pointing to his difficult upbringing and other mitigating evidence, but prosecutors urged jurors to impose the death penalty. The jury sided with the state.

Williams was approaching her own capital murder trial when negotiations over a plea agreement intensified in September 2026. Houston Chronicle reporting said she initially rejected an offer that would have reduced the charges and provided for a 40-year term. Prosecutors withdrew that offer, but discussions resumed as the trial date approached. Williams ultimately signed a substantially similar agreement Sept. 29. The capital murder counts were reduced to murder, and an aggravated assault charge was dropped. The resolution removed the possibility of a capital murder conviction carrying life without parole while guaranteeing a decades-long state prison sentence.

Relatives returned to court Oct. 2 for victim-impact statements before Judge Brian Warren. Family members told the court that the consequences of the 2021 attack had continued long after the shootings. They spoke about the three surviving children, including the daughter who was wounded and later testified against Davis, a child who was an infant at the time and another child who had not been home. Lagway had also recently learned she was pregnant, according to reports documenting the case. Relatives described the children as growing up without their parents and said the violence had reshaped the entire family. Williams declined an opportunity to address the court before the sentence was imposed.

The hearing also underscored the different outcomes for the two defendants. Davis, who carried out the shooting, remains under a death sentence. Williams, who did not fire the gun but admitted murder charges for her role in the case, received 40 years. Prosecutors continued to describe her involvement as central to why Davis went to the apartment, while her defense maintained that the evidence did not establish that she intended the killings themselves. The plea agreement resolved that dispute without a trial on the original capital murder allegations. Under the terms reported after the plea, Williams will become eligible for parole after serving 30 years, though parole eligibility does not guarantee release.

With Williams sentenced, the principal criminal cases arising from the June 2021 attack have now produced guilty pleas and major prison consequences for both defendants. Davis remains on Texas’ death row, while Williams begins the sentence imposed in Harris County. For Lagway and Carhee’s relatives, the final courtroom proceedings against Williams ended years of waiting for her case to be resolved, but family members told the court that the effects of losing the couple, Harmony and Lagway’s unborn child will continue for the surviving children long after the prosecutions have ended.

Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.