Man spent decade in prison for murder. Now he’s accused of killing teen — in same Miami area
Wayne Sanders spent a decade behind bars for his role in fatally gunning down a retired man during a robbery in South Florida. He was 12 at the time.
Last month — two years after he was released from state prison — the now 28-year-old was charged with the killing of a teen girl who, police say, was caught in the crossfire of an escalating fight. Then on Tuesday, he was charged in connection to the 2023 robbery of a man who was held at gunpoint for jewelry.
The three crimes share a similarity: all occurred in the parking lots of neighboring Miami-Dade apartment complexes.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on June 1, Sanders argued with a woman in the parking lot of the Lincoln Fields apartment complex, 2020 NW 65th St., according to police. The scuffle escalated to gun violence — and 18-year-old Shakeria Denise Williams was struck by the hail of bullets.
Williams, affectionately known by loved ones as “Shay-Shay,” was shot in the chest, a warrant says. She died from her injuries.
At the time of the 2023 mugging, the man was carrying his 2-year-old daughter in the parking lot of the Buena Vista Apartments, 2010 NW 63rd St., an arrest report states. The complex is located right next to Lincoln Fields.
The toddler’s other parent was able to grab her and take her to safety. When the man told Sanders he didn’t have anything else, the report says, Sanders hopped in a car and zoomed away.
In early July, Sanders was extradited from Georgia, where he was arrested in connection to Williams’ killing. He’s charged with second-degree murder, among other gun offenses, and is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond.
Before the murder, surveillance footage from the scene captured Williams hanging out with friends in the backseat of a burgundy 2014 BMW 328i when the unrelated squabble between Sanders and another woman broke out in the parking lot, the warrant states. Sanders threw an alcoholic drink at a woman, who then — in return — lunged her cell phone at him.
Sanders, police say, threatened to kill the woman. A man handed him a firearm before he walked back from his car — and the woman, too, grabbed a gun.
He then fired into the air as the woman ran away, ducking for cover around the BMW, according to the warrant. Sanders continued to spray bullets, which struck Williams, as he aimed at the other woman.
“It should be noted that both [Sanders] and [the woman] armed themselves during the incident; however, [Sanders] quickly became the aggressor, escalating the verbal altercation to attempt to murder [the woman,]” detectives say in the warrant.
When Sanders realized he shot Williams, he sped off in a Mercedes-Benz, police say. A witness, who was in the driver’s seat of the BMW, identified Sanders as the gunman in a photo line up.
Investigators found more than a dozen 10mm shell casings on the scene, according to the warrant. Police also uncovered that Sanders contacted Williams’ father after his daughter’s death.
Part of what he allegedly told her father was redacted in the arrest warrant, though police say he claimed he would turn himself in when he killed the woman with whom he was bickering in the parking lot.
Killings share similarities
As a 12-year-old boy, Sanders stood accused of collaborating with an 18-year-old man to ambush and rob 76-year-old Arlin Smith.
Smith was a retired roofer and construction worker who was gunned down while driving his white Ford Crown Victoria into the parking lot of Lincoln Fields on the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2008, according to the Miami Herald archives. Smith, who had survived a stroke and cancer, died inside his car.
“I can’t get my head around it,” son Tyrone Smith told the Miami Herald in 2008. “I used to go to his house with him sitting there. I’d rub him on his little head and tell him I loved him.”
Sanders’ case was transferred from juvenile court in 2012, records show. Three years later, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery charges in exchange for a 10-year sentence, according to a memo penned by prosecutors.
There was no evidence, the document says, that he was armed at the time of the killing.
“The murder case was largely based on defendant Sanders’ confession and the fact that he left his fingerprint on the victim’s car,” the memo states.
Before taking that deal, Sanders was asked to testify against his codefendant — who prosecutors believe was the shooter, according to the document. If he did, his case would be dropped.
But Sanders, the memo says, breached the terms of the agreement. The charges against his codefendant were dropped in 2012, court records indicate, and Sanders was released from prison in March 2022.
The reason for the dropped charges: No forensic evidence linked back to Sanders’ codefendant, according to a memo written by prosecutors. Fingerprints on the car were traced back to Sanders, and the boy had confessed. A witness who had placed the codefendant at the scene also walked back on his statement before trial.
A crime spree?
In the warrant, investigators noted that Sanders may have been connected to another murder that occurred about 10 hours before Williams’ killing.
While police didn’t delve into details in the document, they allege that cell site data placed Sanders’ phone at the scene of that murder. He was also identified as the renter of the car used in the slaying, which investigators state was committed by “multiple individuals.”
READ MORE: Two people shot to death in cars minutes away from each other in Miami-Dade, cops say
Around 12:30 p.m. on June 1, the same time referenced in the warrant, police found Edward Bernard Bailey, a 53-year-old father of six, shot to death at the Sunflex gas station on Northwest 17th Avenue and 79th Street in West Little River. The establishment is located about five minutes away from where Williams was killed later that night.
He hasn’t been charged in that case.
This story was originally published September 5, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
