HOUSTON — Testimony is set to begin on Monday, March 24, in the capital murder trial of Xavier Davis for the 2021 shooting deaths of a southwest Houston couple and their 6-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors said Davis was hired by Alexus Chenelle Williams to kill her ex-girlfriend, Donyavia Lagway, 29, and Lagway’s husband, Gregory Carhee, 35, and daughter, Harmony Carhee.
The couple’s 10-year-old daughter was also shot and critically wounded. She survived by playing dead as she held her 1-year-old baby brother, who police said had been thrown across the room by the suspect.
“This incredible young lady was able to get up despite being gravely wounded, (and) care for her 1-year-old old baby brother who was still in the apartment,” then-prosecutor and now-Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said in 2021.
The alleged motive
Investigators said Williams had an affair with Lagway, but Lagway, a mother of four, ended it and decided to go back to her husband.
They said Williams hired Davis to kill the whole family and told him he could have all the money he found in their apartment on Fondren. Williams may have even watched him murder the victims on her phone, according to prosecutors.
“He was on FaceTime with Alexus Williams. That means she watched either the executions or the immediate aftermath of that family being wiped out,” Teare said.
He said it’s possible Williams even spoke to the victims before they were gunned down. And she attended the family’s funeral before she was arrested.
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The evidence
Investigators said from the beginning that they believed a second suspect was involved. And they suspected it was Williams after learning about the affair.
It took them months to crack her cell phone and then more time to sort through everything on it.
Prosecutors said they found long text messages between the two suspects on the day of the crime.
‘Very, very tragic scene’
The case shook even veteran Houston police officers and shocked family members.
“This was a very, very tragic scene,” said Assistant Chief Patricia Cantu with HPD. “We’re sending out prayers to the family. This was not only a difficult scene for us but for the family as well.”
Donyavia’s cousin, Ronette Terrell said no one deserved to go through anything like this, especially her kids.
“Why? That’s what I don’t understand,” Ronette said. “When I got the phone call I was just in disbelief and then she told me that they had both passed and I was saying that couldn’t be true.”
The brave young survivor
Ronette said the 10-year-old’s quick thinking saved her life.
“She waited until he left and pretended that she was dead and then when he left she locked the door, grabbed her little brother, called her grandmother,” she said.
In 2021, we learned the girl was being cared for by her two grandmothers and had undergone several surgeries.
The couple also had an 8-year-old boy who was not home at the time. Family members said Donyavia had just learned she was pregnant with her fifth child.