On November 27, 2018, following a mediation session to resolve custody issues in a domestic relations case, a fight among four women erupted in the parking lot of the building at 4600 North Brandywine Drive in Peoria, Illinois. As punches were thrown and hair was pulled, 29-year-old Markesha Jeffries began spraying mace.
By the time the fight was broken up, Jeffries, a mother of five children, was on the ground, mortally wounded by a stab wound in the thigh that perforated her femoral artery.
When police arrived, a bystander said that 31-year-old Sheyanah Lee had thrown a knife under a vehicle. The knife was recovered in the snow next to the parking lot. A sheath also was recovered. Lee was taken in for questioning. She admitted she carried the knife for protection and that she had used it, but only in self-defense.
Following the interrogation, Lee was charged with first-degree murder.
In February 2020, Lee went to trial in Peoria County Circuit Court. Testimony showed that prior to the incident, Alicia George and Terry Parker attended a mediation session in the office of a law firm at the building. At issue was George’s refusal to allow Parker to visit their children for several months. By that time, George was in a relationship with Lee.
While the mediation was still in session, Nicole Jamison, mother of Parker, was waiting in the building lobby. At some point, Lee and her younger half-sister, Ro’Naija Pickett, entered. Lee was told the mediation was not finished. According to Jamison, Lee started to leave, but then pointed at her and said, “I got you bitch when you leave out of here.” Lee and Pickett then left.
Not long after, Jamison’s daughter, Jeffries, texted to report that she had arrived and was in a car in the parking lot. Jamison went outside to talk to Jeffries and mentioned the comment that Lee had made. Jamison testified that Jeffries came back into the lobby with her “just in case they pull back up.”
After the mediation ended, Jamison left the building with Terry, George and Jeffries. At that time, Roger Pickett, who was Lee’s father, pulled up. Pickett got out along with Lee and her half-sister.
Jamison testified that George “started hollering, ‘Oh, you bitches ain’t know nothing.’” She said, “And that’s when they started running up towards us.”
According to the testimony, Jeffries told Pickett, Lee, and Lee’s half-sister to back off and began spraying mace into the air in a half-circle motion. Jamison said the mace hit Pickett in the eyes, and that Lee then jumped at Jeffries and they began fighting.
Simultaneously, George grabbed Nicole by the hair and started punching her in the head. Parker grabbed George and told her to let Nicole go. Jamison said that when George let go, she could see Lee and Jeffries pulling each other’s hair. Jamison said George then began hitting Jeffries. Parker was able to get between the women and push them apart. Jamison said she heard Jeffries say that Lee had stabbed her, and she saw blood near Jeffries’s pants pocket. Lee started to run away but then stopped and returned as police arrived on the scene.
The prosecution introduced a video of the fight that had been taken by an attorney on the second floor of the building.
During cross-examination, Jamison said that after Jeffries sprayed mace and before the physical fight started, Jeffries yelled, “You’re going to jail for setting my cars on fire.”
Jamison said that she had not asked Jeffries to come to the building, but that Jeffries came “to get justice for her cars being set on fire.”
Jamison claimed an order of protection existed barring Lee from contact with Jeffries, but the order had never been served. Court records showed that Jeffries had obtained an order of protection against Lee on August 16, 2018, but it had been dismissed on September 26, 2018, two months before the fight.
Parker testified that after Jeffries said she had been stabbed, he looked at Lee and saw a knife in her hand with the blade protruding from between her index and middle fingers. He said he saw a sheath on the ground as well.
Peoria police officer Brett Lawrence testified that he was originally dispatched to investigate a possible violation of a protective order, but while enroute, the dispatch changed to a fight in progress. When he arrived, he handcuffed Lee and put her in his vehicle.
The prosecution presented a two-minute portion of officer Lawrence’s body camera footage showing Jeffries on the ground, struggling to remain conscious. A large amount of blood was visible. The audio began 30 seconds into the video, and the panicked pleas of Jamison and Parker could be heard. No one was tending to Jeffries, however. After the video was played, Judge John Vespa sent the jury out. In their absence, he said, “That was definitely a disturbing video.”
After a recess, Peoria police officer Paul Tuttle testified that a knife was found in the snow. Photographs of the knife and the sheath were introduced into evidence.
The testimony of forensic pathologist Amanda Youmans was presented by stipulation. Dr. Youmans said Jeffries died of massive blood loss which caused cardiac arrest. Dr. Youmans said the wound was 1 ¼ inches deep and was consistent with the dimensions of the knife recovered at the scene.
The defense called Pickett and Lee. Pickett said that when he and his daughters arrived, he heard George and Jeffries arguing. He said he told Lee to stay in the vehicle while he got out with the intention of getting George because he was her ride. He said George was upset and Parker was trying to defuse the situation.
Pickett said that Lee and her half-sister got out, and Jeffries responded by spraying Mace and punching Lee, which led to them pulling each other’s hair. He said he tried to separate them, but he got mace in his eyes. “[Jeffries] get to spraying mace…it was like a sprinkle coming down…and it get in my eyes a little bit.” He said he then walked to his car to get some ice to try to clear his eyes.
He also testified that when he pulled up he heard George say that she did not want to fight, and Jeffries said they were going to fight because “I know you did something to my car.”
Lee testified that she left the car after the situation began escalating and people were encircling George. She said she yelled, “Why is it every time Alicia George is by herself y’all want to do something to her?”
Lee said Jeffries then sprayed mace at her, grabbed her, and started hitting her. Lee said she fought back and while they were entangled and pulling each other’s hair, Jeffries sprayed her with mace again.
Lee also testified that in 2016 she had surgery requiring a plate and screws in her spine near her neck. She said that during the fight she feared for her neck should she fall to the ground. Because she was being hit, she had to struggle to stay on her feet. She said that she thought she would fall to the ground if she let go of Jeffries’s hair.
She said that when Jeffries first grabbed her, Jeffries said, “Yeah, bitch, I got you now. You can’t see.”
Lee admitted she stabbed Jeffries in an attempt to get Jeffries off of her. She said she panicked afterward, which led to her trying to get rid of the knife.
Lee said she believed she told the police during her interrogation that she feared for her safety, that she cried during the entire interrogation and was remorseful even before she learned that Jeffries was dead.
In rebuttal, the prosecution called police officer Brian Skaggs, whose body camera footage of his interview with Pickett was admitted into evidence. The prosecution attempted to discredit Pickett’s testimony by arguing that the video showed that Pickett never said that after Jeffries sprayed mace, everyone ducked and then Jeffries hit Lee.
Detective Scott Hulse testified that he questioned Lee at the station. He said that Lee did not initially say she stabbed Jeffries. He said she told him her sister was trying to pull her away and that her sister was trying to get the mace away from Jeffries. Detective Hulse said that Lee did not tell him that she feared for her safety, did not mention any issue with her neck, and did not cry at all until he told her that Jeffries had died. And then, Hulse said, Lee “had a very small emotional response.”
On February 26, 2020, the jury convicted Lee of first-degree murder. At her pre-sentencing interview, Lee said she felt scared during the incident and was acting in self-defense. The pre-sentence investigator reported, “She claims that she just wanted the victim to get off of her.”
At sentencing on July 17, 2020, Lee said, “The way I protected myself has caused a life to be taken. In my 32 years of living, my biggest regret is using a knife to defend myself, instead of just trying to walk away. Lord knows that I wish I could rewind time…and change the situation, but I can’t. And for that I am deeply sorry.
“I take full responsibility for causing the death of Markesha,” she said. “What I’ve done, I done in thinking that [it] was the best way to protect myself, but that still is no excuse for causing this everlasting pain for her family.”
Judge Vespa interpreted Lee’s statement as being unwilling to take responsibility for her conduct, and he dismissed the defense notion that Lee was acting out of fear based on her neck issue. Judge Vespa sentenced Lee to 50 years in prison.
In January 2023, more than 2½ years later, the Third District Illinois Appellate Court vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial. The court found that Lee had received ineffective assistance of counsel because her lawyer failed to object to the admission of the video that showed Jeffries lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
The appellate court ruled the video was irrelevant and inflammatory. The video “showed only Markesha dying,” the court said. “She struggled to maintain consciousness as she continued to bleed and while her family members made emotionally charged pleas for help. Despite the State’s disingenuous claims to the contrary on appeal, the footage did not add anything tending to prove that Sheyanah committed first degree murder.”
The court said, “there was no conceivable strategic reason” for Lee’s defense attorney not to object to the admission of the video.” The court said that the video was “shocking and it had no probative value.”
In December 2025, Lee went to trial for the second time, represented by a legal team headed by Chicago defense attorney William Wolf.
The defense presented medical records and medical testimony from a nurse who was involved in Lee’s treatment that involved the surgery on the C1 and C2 vertebrae in 2016. Lee’s defense attorney at her first trial had not sought to obtain the records. As a consequence, during Lee’s testimony at the first trial, the prosecution suggested during cross-examination that she was fabricating the account of her neck surgery. The jury was able to see the surgical scar on the back of Lee’s neck.
The defense also called Ro’Naija, who was 17 at the time of the incident. She supported Lee and Lee’s father’s version of the events.
The defense also presented evidence showing that Jeffries had obtained an order of protection against George, which was still in effect on the day of the incident, and that Jeffries had called 911 on her way to the building to report a violation of it, prompting the initial police response.
The defense argued that Jeffries had set the events in motion by going to the mediation, calling the police on George, with the intent of getting at least her arrested for an order of protection violation, and then started a fight knowing the police were on their way to get all of them, including Lee, arrested.
On December 19, 2025, the jury acquitted Lee and she was released.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 01-11-2026
