2 Sentenced In Teacher’s Murder At Dunkin Drive-Thru With Son In Car
A Pennsylvania man and woman were sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the murder-for-hire love triangle shooting of a beloved teacher in a Dunkin’ drive-thru while her 11-year-old son sat in the backseat of her car.
Rachel King, 35, and her son, Jalen, were sitting in her SUV in the fast food restaurant’s drive-thru line at around 7:30 a.m. on April 11, 2023, when Zakkee Steven Alhakim, 34, walked up to the driver’s side and opened fire, prosecutors said. She was shot five times and pronounced dead at the scene, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Alhakim, who had followed King from her home, then returned to the car he had parked nearby and sped away, investigators said.
Julie Jean, 33, had hired Alhakim to kill King out of jealousy, investigators said, after King’s longtime boyfriend, William Hayes, ended his affair with Jean.
Hayes testified Tuesday that he had broken things off with Jean when King found out about the affair, but Jean continued to pursue him. She stalked and harassed both him and King, with whom he had reconciled, he said, and he filed and received a protection order against her in December 2022.
King, a teacher at Grover Cleveland Mastery Charter School in north Philadelphia, had stopped at the donut shop in Cheltenham Township on the way to drop off her son for a violin lesson before school, family members told the local outlet NBC10 Philadelphia.
Jalen, whose prerecorded testimony was played in court Tuesday, was not injured.
A police officer testified Monday that Jalen didn’t understand why no one was helping his mother and begged officers to take her to the hospital, the Inquirer reported.
“To hear and to see what my grandson went through — that leveled me. That took everything in me to maintain what little composure I’ve had,” King’s father, Rev. Allen King Jr., told ABC television affiliate WPVI.
Jean and Alhakim had pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy. Authorities said text messages and CashApp records linked the two, and that surveillance video footage, which was played in court, showed Alhakim parking near King’s apartment and closely following her as she drove to the Dunkin’ restaurant. Alhakim’s cousin was the father of Jean’s three children, authorities said.
Authorities said the car Alhakim was driving at the time of King’s murder, a Mercury Sable, was purchased by Jean on March 30, less than two weeks before the killing. They had also purchased an untraceable “ghost” gun from a private seller, prosecutors said.
Shortly after King’s killing, police in Philadelphia spotted Alhakim driving the Mercury, which they had linked to the April 7 killing of James “Chris” Farrell Jr., 36, ABC7 reported. When police tried to stop him, he sped away and crashed into a fence. After his arrest, investigators linked the casings found in the previous murder to those collected outside of King’s car.
The motive for Farrell’s killing is unclear, although authorities said it was unrelated to King’s murder.
A fundraiser created by King’s family to support Jalen has raised more than $100,000 in donations.
A student who donated said King had been her teacher for two years.
“Within these 2 years she has been the best teacher you could ever ask for,” the student wrote.
“She was so joyful and sweet everyday… it breaks my heart that will never see her again but I’ll be strong for her.”
