A teenager in Texas accepted a plea deal with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office this week, two years after he murdered a mother who was delivering food to an apartment for Uber Eats.
Zakariya Marshall, 17, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murder of Ryan Munsie Graham, who he stabbed to death along with another teen suspect while attempting to rob her in Haltom City, FOX 4 Dallas reported.
The other unnamed juvenile suspect was sentenced last year to seven years in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department for aggravated robbery.
Marshall’s plea deal downgraded his charge for capital murder to murder. “I think about her a lot,” Marshall said in an apology to Graham’s family. “I’m sorry she was the one who had to experience my anger for things that had nothing to do with her. I’m not the same person I was two years ago, but I still haven’t forgiven myself.”
Marshall will be eligible for parole in 22 years and told the court he has “plans” for his future.
Donna Munsie, Graham’s stepmother said she would keep him in her prayers, but her mother Suzanne Munsie told him in a remote video call in the courtroom, “Do you honestly expect that after what you did to Ryan and you took her life away that you’re going to go on, you’re going to be able to live out your big plans? Do you expect to caress the face of a loved one with the same fists that you beat my daughter in the face and stomach with? Do you expect at some point to kick a soccer ball with your child, the same feet that you used to kick my daughter in the head and stomach? Those were choices and now you’ve got consequences of your choices … You made a choice to go out to try to steal a car. You made a choice when she was passed out to stab her in the neck with a knife. Who does that?”
She added, “I’m glad they gave you 45 years.”
Donna said Graham’s murder was the worst night of her life. “She was trying to make a better life for her family.”
Graham had three children who were 11, 10 and 5 at the time of her murder and she worked four jobs, including her Uber Eats gig, to support them.
“How do you tell those children that their mommy is not coming home? Ryan is never going to get to watch these three kids grow up,” she said.
She added that she thinks he should spend his life in jail.
On Thursday, a 30-year-old man was arrested in San Antonio for allegedly killing an Uber driver, according to FOX 29 in San Antonio.
Dominique Dashon Croom was charged with murder in the shooting death of Robert Carbonell Diaz while he was driving for Uber. Croom was listed as his last passenger.
He is being held at the Bexar County Jail on a $200,000 bond.
