Bitter Breakup Leads to the Death of a Pennsylvania Mother Murdered by Her Boyfriend's Ex and a Hired Gunman.
One woman's inability to get over a breakup has landed her in jail and another woman is dead.
Pennsylvania authorities say that Julie Jean, 35, had a relationship with the ex-boyfriend of Rachel King, also 35. When that man left Jean and went back to King, they say Jean repeatedly harassed, stalked and threatened them. No one actually thought that those threats held any weight but, sadly, they proved to be fatal.
On April 11, 2023 Rachel King left her home and drove to the Cheltenham Township Dunkin’ with her young son in the backseat. While King sat in her car, in the drive-thru, she was approached by a man had exited a Mercury Sable. That man pulled out a gun and shot her multiple times. From the beginning authorities stated that this was a targeted attack. They believed that the unknown man had to have known of King and where she would be but, they didn't know how or who the man could be.
They had no clue that the man was a known acquaintance of Julie Jean until they took a closer look at surveillance video and his car.
Two weeks before the murder Julie Jean had been recorded as purchasing a silver Mercury Sable just like the one used in King's murder. Jean then gave, or loaned, the vehicle to the gunman, identified as Zakkee Steven Alhakim, in order for him to carry out the crime.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele revealed that Alhakim, the gunman, is a cousin of a man who fathered Jean’s three children.
“This cold-blooded killing of Rachel King was a targeted murder of an innocent person, planned by these two defendants and horrifically carried out in front of King’s son,” DA Steele said. “It is a tragic killing of a good person, all because of an ended affair.”
Prosecutors said significant video evidence showed that Alhakim watched King outside her home days before the murder to, we presume, learn her patterns before following her to Dunkin' that fateful day.
As much as Jean seemed to have planned out King's execution, she didn't do a good job at covering their tracks.
Cellphone evidence, from call logs, towers and their own photo galleries, connect the two and prove that they planned King's death for weeks.
“Very soon after Jean saved Alhakim’s contact info, Alhakim saved a screen capture to his phone of a Google map of the victim’s apartment complex, with a pin marking King’s exact residence and a red arrow showing a route to travel directly to the victim’s residence,” prosecutors said. “Also of note on Alhakim’s phone were two photographs. One was the victim’s photo displayed on a cellphone held by a female, believed to be Jean. The photo was taken on Feb. 25, 2023, at 2:17 p.m., less than 30 minutes after Alhakim shared his real-time location with Jean for them to meet up.”
The day after King's murder, Jean tried, but failed, to delete messages between her and Alhakim just 13 minutes prior to being questioned by police. The crime was so heinous and senseless that King’s brother Allen King III said “This is what the death penalty was made for.” Although those are his feelings, just months before the murder Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) announced that he would follow the policy of his gubernatorial predecessor and would not resume executions. A moratorium on the death penalty has been in place in Pennsylvania for nearly a decade — and the ACLU said that the commonwealth hasn’t executed anyone since 1999, the end of the 20th century.
Just yesterday both Jean and Alhakim were found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy — and it didn’t take long for the jury to reach the result that led to life sentences.
“The jury took less than an hour to find Julie Jean and Zakkee Alhakim GUILTY of First-Degree Murder and Conspiracy in the killing of Rachel King,” the DA’s office said.
King was a beloved mother, daughter of a Pastor, sister and elementary school teacher. She didn't deserve this.
