A Chester man who recruited his friend to carry out the execution of a criminal rival in June 2024, only to have that friend die during the botched ambush, was convicted of first-degree murder by a Delaware County jury.
Jesse Allen Jr., 20, was charged with the murder of Zaheem Sabree, even though he did not fire the shot that killed him, under the legal theory of transferred intent. The person who pulled the trigger, Tyjohn Walker-Jones, 18, was the target of Allen and Sabree, who were out for revenge after Walker-Jones allegedly killed their friend weeks earlier.
Text messages presented during Allen’s three-day trial showed that he had begun plotting Walker-Jones’ death immediately after the murder of Sabrie “Breezy” Pierce.
“Everybody gone pay,” Allen said in the message, displayed in court.
Surveillance footage from a nearby deli recorded Allen and Sabree walking together down 24th Street on the day of the shooting, then hiding nearby — Allen in shrubbery and Sabree behind a concrete wall. Moments later, Walker-Jones is seen on the video walking through the area and then ducking behind a parked car as the gunfire rang out, prosecutors said.
Shell casings found at the scene showed that Walker-Jones and Sabree shot at each other multiple times — Sabree with a .45-caliber pistol and Walker-Jones with a 9mm, prosecutors said. Walker-Jones and Allen then fled in opposite directions.
Sabree was found near that scene, shot in the head. Police took him to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Allen’s attorney, Brian Malloy, urged jurors in his closing arguments to acquit his client. The real killer, he said, was Walker-Jones, who, while awaiting trial in Pierce’s murder, was given a “two-for-one deal” by prosecutors.
During Allen’s trial, Walker-Jones, who was not charged in connection with Sabree’s death, took the stand and admitted to shooting Sabree in the head.
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“He knows he has to play along, say what he has to say, but actions speak louder than words,” Malloy said. “We watched videos of him killing two people, and he’s not sitting at this table, and that’s a crazy thing.”
Malloy suggested that Walker-Jones was the aggressor, chasing Allen and Sabree as they walked through Chester.
But Deputy District Attorney Matt Krouse said Allen took deliberate steps to plan the ambush and was directly responsible for Sabree’s death.
Allen directed Sabree, a star football player at Chester High School and an honors student at STEM Academy, to wear all black and meet him at a deli in Walker-Jones’ neighborhood, which was nowhere near his own, Krouse said. He deliberately left his cell phone at a friend’s house, knowing his movement would be tracked.
And after the shooting, Allen, in text messages, bristled at the rumor circulating through Chester that he had left his wounded friend to die, saying he had no choice.
“He knew already on June 30, 2024 that he was guilty of everything he was charged with,” Krouse said. “But just like he ran from his so-called best friend to avoid the consequence of his actions, that’s what he’s trying to do today and this week.”
Allen is to be sentenced in October. Walker-Jones’ trial in the death of Sabrie Pierce is scheduled to be held later this year.
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