‘He was such a coward.’ North Texas man found guilty of murdering pregnant ex-girlfriend
A Tarrant County jury on Monday found a man guilty of capital murder for killing his ex-girlfriend and their unborn child in a shooting in Arlington.
Keith Haynes, 33, received an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
On April 14, 2017, Haynes fatally shot 25-year-old Kenishia Walker in her bed at her Arlington home, prosecutors said. Walker was a single mother and was pregnant with Haynes’ child.
Walker’s 8-year-old son found her body.
Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Allenna Bangs and Sarah Sherman prosecuted the case.
“This was Easter weekend,” Bangs told the jury, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office. “It is about spring and new life. Kenishia had a new baby coming. And the Friday before Easter, just like the first Easter, Kenishia was betrayed. She had no idea when Mr. Haynes called, asking her to leave the door unlocked for him, that she was being set up.”
“He was such a coward, killing her and his unborn baby,” Bangs said. “Kenishia is important. The unborn baby’s life was important. And they both mattered.”
Haynes was arrested at his Plano apartment a few days after the killing. He was a former detention officer for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and was working for the department’s courtesy patrol division at the time of his arrest. Courtesy patrol is a civilian division of the sheriff’s office that assists stranded motorists on highways.
Walker had told a friend that she was afraid Haynes would kill her. She sent screenshots of text conversations between her and Haynes to a friend, and wrote, “If I ever come up dead please show the police this and other screenshots.”
“This case is not a mystery,” Sherman told jurors. “All the evidence has pointed to one person.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 6:02 PM.
