[chris]

Tristaney Cheylynn Baker, 20, pleaded guilty in the shooting death of Jayla Wyatt, 23, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after Wyatt was found dead in a downtown Zanesville, Ohio, apartment on April 27, 2021.

Wyatt had recently started staying at Apartment 2 at 46 South Sixth Street, which was rented by Patrick Downs. She was the mother of two small children, who are not named in reporting. Baker, of Columbus, had been involved with Downs. He told detectives that Baker and Wyatt had argued within the previous week and were feuding. Baker had come to the apartment the day before the shooting, caused a disturbance and broke a window. Baker's boyfriend was Devin C. McKnelly, 23, of Thornville, in Licking County.

At about 7:00 p.m., Zanesville police officers were sent to the apartment for a woman who had been shot. Downs had returned home and found Wyatt dead inside. Officers recovered six spent 9 mm casings from the entryway into the living room area, but no gun was at the scene. The autopsy found Wyatt had been shot six times, several times in the legs and body and once directly in the face.

A woman leaving a business next door told detectives that a robin egg blue two door car had backed in near the dumpster behind the building, with a young man in the driver's seat. She heard three or four gunshots, then saw a very thin woman leave the building, get into the car and drive off. Cameras at a dance studio behind the apartments recorded the same car and a woman in shorts and a hoodie walking to the building and returning quickly.

Downs named the woman he knew as Kristin as the likely shooter. A forensic download of his phone matched that contact to a law enforcement photograph of Baker at a Columbus address. An exigent circumstances order placed Baker's phone in Licking County just after the shooting, then at that Columbus address. A murder complaint was filed, and Columbus police took Baker into custody there on the morning of April 28, 2021, roughly twelve hours after the shooting. McKnelly was at the same residence and was also taken in. The blue Honda he had been driving was seized and matched the car in the video.

Detectives interviewed Kayla Craig on April 28. Craig said Baker told her she shot a girl about ten times, was jealous of the woman over a boyfriend, and shot the victim in the thigh before continuing to fire until she was out of bullets. Craig said Baker showed no remorse and that McKnelly told her he got Baker the gun. McKnelly was interviewed the same day, and his account of the gun and the drive is set out in the second recording on this thread. During her own interview with detectives working the Zanesville police investigation after she was taken into custody in Columbus, Baker denied being involved in the shooting, according to the appellate record.

Baker was indicted on May 13, 2021, on two counts of aggravated murder with firearm specifications, aggravated burglary with a firearm specification, tampering with evidence and possession of criminal tools. She pleaded guilty to all counts on May 17, 2021. At sentencing on June 28, 2021, the two aggravated murder counts were merged, and she received life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus six years on consecutive firearm specifications. The Fifth District Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction and sentence on June 1, 2022.

McKnelly was indicted on the same five counts on May 19, 2021. He pleaded guilty on May 24, 2021, to one count of aggravated murder, with the state dismissing the remaining counts. He was sentenced on June 28, 2021, to life with parole eligibility after 20 years. His motion to withdraw the plea was denied on December 22, 2023. The Fifth District affirmed his conviction on July 16, 2024, the most recent development in the case.

The video is a police interview-room recording that runs about 52 minutes. It contains Baker's interview itself and opens with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

[chris]

Devin McKnelly, 23, of Thornville, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder on May 24, 2021, and was sentenced to life with parole eligibility after 20 years.

McKnelly, Tristaney Baker's boyfriend, was taken into custody with her at a Columbus address on the morning of April 28, 2021. Jayla Wyatt had been shot dead the previous day in a Zanesville apartment.

Detectives interviewed McKnelly on April 28. According to the appellate record, he initially denied having any knowledge of the homicide, then admitted obtaining the firearm for Baker and driving her from Columbus to Thornville to collect it, and then to Zanesville. He said Baker had told him she wanted to shoot Wyatt, but he believed she was joking.

McKnelly told detectives the gun was in a shoebox in a closet at the Thornville house, where he had hidden it before driving back to Columbus with Baker. Latex gloves with apparent gunshot residue and a sweatshirt with blood on it were recovered from his car, which matched the vehicle recorded behind the apartment building.

The video is the second interrogation from the case. The police interview-room recording runs about 56 minutes and shows the interview itself, beginning with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

[LuckiiDevil21]

Can't turn a hoe into a housewife.