2 Sentenced In Teacher’s Murder At Dunkin Drive-Thru With Son In Car

A Pennsylvania man and woman were sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the murder-for-hire love triangle shooting of a beloved teacher in a Dunkin’ drive-thru while her 11-year-old son sat in the backseat of her car.

Rachel King, 35, and her son, Jalen, were sitting in her SUV in the fast food restaurant’s drive-thru line at around 7:30 a.m. on April 11, 2023, when Zakkee Steven Alhakim, 34, walked up to the driver’s side and opened fire, prosecutors said . She was shot five times and pronounced dead at the scene, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported .

Alhakim, who had followed King from her home, then returned to the car he had parked nearby and sped away, investigators said.

Julie Jean, 33, had hired Alhakim to kill King out of jealousy, investigators said, after King’s longtime boyfriend, William Hayes, ended his affair with Jean.

Hayes testified Tuesday that he had broken things off with Jean when King found out about the affair, but Jean continued to pursue him. She stalked and harassed both him and King, with whom he had reconciled, he said, and he filed and received a protection order against her in December 2022.

King, a teacher at Grover Cleveland Mastery Charter School in north Philadelphia, had stopped at the donut shop in Cheltenham Township on the way to drop off her son for a violin lesson before school, family members told the local outlet NBC10 Philadelphia.

Jalen, whose prerecorded testimony was played in court Tuesday, was not injured.

A police officer testified Monday that Jalen didn’t understand why no one was helping his mother and begged officers to take her to the hospital, the Inquirer reported.

“To hear and to see what my grandson went through — that leveled me. That took everything in me