Prosecutors said Zakeem F. Jones chased a perceived romantic rival into a Buena Vista Township home and shot him while children were inside.

SAGINAW, Mich. — A Saginaw County judge sentenced an Indiana man to life in prison without parole after jurors found he murdered his fiancee’s former partner in a Buena Vista Township home in March 2023, closing a case prosecutors said was driven by jealousy and planned violence.

Zakeem F. Jones, 26, was sentenced March 25 after a January jury conviction on first-degree premeditated murder and several firearm offenses in the killing of Devon L. Williams, 33. The punishment marked the clearest legal milestone yet in a case that stretched across three years, crossed state lines and left a second defendant still facing charges. It also sharpened the split between Jones’ brief, emotionless comments in court and the victim’s family’s demand for the harshest sentence allowed.

The sentencing hearing itself became part of the story. When Judge Andre R. Borrello gave Jones a chance to speak, Jones offered only a few words: “I’m cool, man. It is what it is.” The remark, reported from the courtroom, immediately underscored what Williams’ relatives had argued for months, that the shooting was not a sudden mistake but a choice carried out without remorse. Williams’ mother, Shontele Lockett, urged the court to impose the maximum penalty. She said Jones did not know her son and had still decided to kill him. After Borrello imposed life without parole, applause broke out in the gallery before the judge restored order. The court also imposed three consecutive two-year firearm terms and ordered Jones to pay a $1,218 fine.

Prosecutors had built the case around a simple theory: Jones decided to “obliterate the competition” after reading messages between his then-fiancee, Markeisha R. Burns-Cross, and Williams, her former partner and the father of her child. According to trial testimony, Jones and Burns-Cross had traveled from Indiana to mid-Michigan on March 29, 2023, for a family event. They later spent time drinking in Bay City, where an argument broke out after Burns-Cross became angry over Jones talking to other women. Burns-Cross then began texting Williams and arranged to meet him. Prosecutors said Jones found the messages, became enraged and ordered Burns-Cross to keep the meeting in place. The pair drove to Williams’ duplex on Walters Drive in Buena Vista Township, where Williams was babysitting children. Burns-Cross testified that Jones armed himself with a 9 mm handgun outside and then went into the house when Williams did not come out.

Inside the duplex, prosecutors said, Williams was seated at a table when he looked up and saw Jones. A prosecutor told jurors Williams’ face changed in that instant, signaling recognition and fear. The state said Williams tried to run, but the front door was locked. Burns-Cross testified she heard multiple shots and felt heat in front of her face as Jones fired. Investigators later recovered shell casings and bullet fragments at the scene. Williams was found on the floor, still alive but struggling to breathe, and he later died at a hospital. Early local reporting on March 30, 2023, said police were called to the 3100 block of Walters Drive at about 3:40 p.m. and found Williams with a gunshot wound. No children were reported physically injured, but their presence in the house remained one of the most jarring facts in the case.

The long gap between the shooting and Jones’ trial added another layer. After the gunfire, prosecutors said Jones and Burns-Cross drove back to Indiana the next day. Burns-Cross was arrested and charged in 2023. Jones was not taken into custody until September 2024, when authorities arrested him as he was being released from prison in Illinois on an unrelated case. He was then extradited to Michigan. That timeline helped prosecutors argue that the killing was not only deliberate when it happened, but followed by flight across state lines. Defense arguments from trial are only partly visible in public summaries, and some details about the exact route of travel, the children inside the home and Jones’ conduct in the hours after the shooting have not been fully laid out in public court reporting.

Even with Jones now sentenced, the case is not fully over. Burns-Cross still faces criminal charges, including first-degree murder, in Saginaw County. Public reporting before Jones’ sentencing said she testified against him without a plea agreement in place. Her case matters because it could further define how prosecutors believe the killing was arranged, what role they say she played in bringing Williams to the house and how much of the planning happened before the pair arrived at the duplex. Court reporting also shows how the case moved through distinct stages: the shooting in March 2023, Burns-Cross’s arrest in July 2023, Jones’ 2024 arrest in Illinois, the jury verdict in January 2026 and the life sentence in March 2026. Those steps gave the case the shape of a slow-moving prosecution rather than a single courthouse moment.

For Williams’ family, the legal milestones did little to soften the central fact of the case: a father was killed inside a residence where he was caring for children. That detail appeared repeatedly in local and courtroom accounts because it captured both vulnerability and interruption. Williams was at home, not in a bar fight or street confrontation, and prosecutors said he was unarmed and had no warning of what was coming. Family members cast the sentence as overdue justice rather than closure. Jones, by contrast, left behind a record of only brief words at sentencing. In a case filled with texts, travel, shell casings and years of waiting, the emotional divide between the courtroom gallery and the defense table became one of the last things the public saw.

Jones now faces a life term without parole in Michigan, while Burns-Cross’s separate case remains the next major point to watch in Saginaw County court records. The broader homicide case stands legally advanced, but not fully finished.

Author note: Last updated April 17, 2026.