HOUSTON – “Three people are dead and that little girl and her other two living siblings are orphans. Not just three people, but both of her parents and her little sister were executed and she had to watch it,” were the powerful words said by Sean Teare of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office on Monday morning.
“And not only did she have to watch it, she had to experience it while being shot herself,” he said.
The girl Teare was referring to was an 11-year-old who survived as three of her family members were executed at a southwest Houston apartment last year.
The woman accused of orchestrating the home invasion and murders, Alexus Williams, 29, appeared before a Harris County judge Monday and was denied bond.
“We may eventually agree to a bond well in the future, but as it stands right now, she is held at no bond for all three capital murders and for the aggravated assault of the young girl,” Teare said.
Teare said their job is to make sure the girl and the rest of her family get justice.
“Can you imagine the trauma she is going to have to experience for the rest of her life, simply because two people wanted money and revenge?” he asked.
On June 30, 2021, Houston police responded to reports of a shooting at an apartment complex located at 12101 Fondren Road around 10:35 p.m. When police arrived, they found Gregory Carhee, Donyavia Lagway, and the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Harmony Carhee, shot to death inside of the apartment.
The older girl, who was only 10 years old at the time, called for help and detailed what happened.
The girl said a man, police later identified as Xavier Davis, knocked on the door of her family’s home, and when her father answered, the man came inside and demanded money. Davis allegedly grabbed the 1-year-old out of the dad’s arms, placed him on the couch, then opened fire. The girl was shot in the arm, but played dead until the suspect left.
Teare said the bravery and the heroism she showed possibly saved her and her baby brother’s life. Another sibling was not home that evening.
WATCH RAW VIDEO: Assistant District Attorney Sean Teare speaks about the triple murder of a family allegedly sparked by revenge
“Her wherewithal to just let Xavier Davis get out of the apartment before she began to check on her brother, to check on her little sister and to check on her parents is amazing,” Teare said. “I don’t think there are many adults out here that could have done what she did, and then to have the mental capacity to call her grandparents and her uncle to get help there for herself and her little brother.”
Davis, who was 28 years old when the crime was committed, was charged with three counts of capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Investigators later learned he allegedly did not act alone. Phone data helped link Williams to the timeline of events. In March, she was arrested and received the same three charges as Davis.
Teare said the two accused had different motives for committing the heinous crime.
“What we’ve been able to gather is that Alexus Williams promised him that there were several thousand dollars in that apartment,” Teare said. “She told him that whatever he was able to get was his. It was simply greed for Xavier Davis.”
Teare said for Williams, however, the motive was personal.
Williams was no stranger to the family. According to Teare, Williams and the girl’s mother, Lagway, possibly met in 2017 or 2018 and developed a dating relationship, which recently ended.
“We believe that ended poorly about a week prior to these murders,” he said. “We know that Alexus Williams spent numerous nights and times over there at that apartment prior to a week before the shootings.”
On the day of the murders, Williams and Davis spent some time at a strip club earlier in the day. After that, the two split and Davis committed a carjacking, driving the stolen vehicle to the family’s home, according to Teare.
He said, while Davis was the triggerman who entered alone, Williams was allegedly with him, in a sense, every step of the way.
“Alexus Williams was maybe not present at the murders, physically, but we know she was there via Facetime and phone calls which, in some ways, makes it even more disturbing to think that she didn’t want to be there in person but she certainly wanted to see the actual commission of the offense and the aftermath,” Teare said.
Even more sinister, Williams attended the funeral for the victims.
No decision has been made yet on whether the two will face the death penalty. The next procedural step is to present the case to the grand jury.
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