Shanard Saxon vividly remembers the night someone tried to kill him.
It was just after midnight on Aug. 14, 2021. He was at his home in Sunrise when gunfire erupted through his bedroom window as he was about to fall asleep.
“I just remember hearing the glass break and pops, pops, pops,” Saxon said. “I felt something really hot, I saw a hole enter the wall, and that’s when I knew something was going on. I was panicking and shouting.”
His girlfriend Shani Jones was asleep next to him and awoke to his screams. As she ducked for cover, Jones was able to grab her phone and call for help. Saxon was grazed by a bullet, and Jones was hit three times in the leg.
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“My leg wouldn’t move so I had to drag it, I remember calling 911 and seeing holes appear in the drywall above our head,” Jones said. “I was begging the operator, 'Please don’t let us die, please!'"
Saxon taped video of the aftermath in the apartment. Gunshots pierced the walls of the bedroom and the bathroom.
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“I remember screaming in a panic and thinking, am I going to die, am I going to lose my leg? Will I be able to walk?” Jones said.
Sunrise Police arrested Travis Jenkins and Charles Murrell Jr. and charged them with the crime. But detectives said it was someone else who wanted Saxon dead.
Investigators said Saxon’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, Maya Williams, hired Jenkins and Murrell to execute Saxon. At the time they were in the middle of a contentious custody battle.
“I couldn’t in a million years things turning out as bad as it did, all I ever wanted was joint custody, 50-50,” Saxon said.
Jenkins and Murrell were arrested within days of the shooting, but it took two and a half years to connect the crime to Williams and charge her with conspiracy to commit murder.
The arrest report says the two suspects admitted they were hired by Williams, and cellphone records coupled with bank statements showed Williams paid them $1,500 to do it.
“For $1,500? It’s disheartening because this is someone I’ve known for half my life and to do that and someone to think so little of me,” Saxon said.
After feeling so low for so long, Saxon says Williams’ arrest was a relief.
“It makes me feel like me and Shani’s lives matter. It makes us trust in the justice system and trust in the process,” Saxon said.
The couple lives a more private life now. They have a 2-year-old son and Saxon’s 11-year-old daughter.
Despite the physical and emotional injuries, they’re hopeful about the future.
“We get to watch our kids grow up and tell our story, we are here, we made it out,” Jones said.
“I just believe the sun’s always going to come out,” Saxon said.
Maya Williams faces two charges in this alleged murder-for-hire plot. She was in court Wednesday asking a judge to grant her a bond so she could try to get out of jail before trial. The judge has not yet ruled on her request.
