LR woman sentenced for fatally shooting husband

A 31-year-old Little Rock woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for fatally shooting her husband of barely a month, then trying to convince witnesses and police the man had shot himself.

Sentencing papers filed on Friday show Shalayla Khabeer, also known as Shalaya Khabeer, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first-degree murder, and committing a terroristic act, in exchange for the sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Karen Whatley.

The plea agreement was negotiated by deputy prosecutor Alexa Vetsch and defense attorney Lawrence Walker.

According to court files, Khabeer and 29-year-old Braxton Traveon Hale, who have a child together, had been married 35 days when a January 2022 call about a shooting brought police to the Eagle Hill apartments, 11 Par Drive.

Officers found Hale with a bullet wound to his upper left thigh in the back seat of a black Toyota Camry. Police applied a tourniquet and sent him to the hospital in critical condition.

Hale could not speak for himself, and Khabeer told police he’d accidentally shot himself. Hale died about 16 hours later.

Neighbor Alecia Allen told police she’d heard arguing all weekend from the couple’s apartment. She said that morning, she’d heard what sounded like furniture being moved around in their apartment, then a loud “boom,” breaking glass and someone yelling. When she heard someone “tumbling” down the stairs, Allen went outside to see what had happened and saw a bleeding Hale holding his leg and running.

She said Khabeer, holding a silver object in her hand, called out, “you not gonna tell” and “I will say you tried to hit me.” Allen said she did not know what Khabeer was holding, describing how she had to intervene to stop Khabeer from driving off with the wounded Hale, then work to convince Khabeer not to leave before the ambulance arrived. Khabeer kept saying that Hale had shot himself, Allen told police.

Another neighbor, Joshua Saulsberry, told police he’d heard stomping come from the couple’s apartment, which he said was normal due to the couple having an autistic child.

When the sound grew louder, Saulsberry said he went outside, describing how he could hear the couple arguing, telling investigators he had been regularly hearing arguing in the apartment for the past few days.

He said at that moment, Hale’s voice was muffled but he could hear Khabeer clearly, he told police. He said he went back inside but when he heard a loud “bang,” he opened his door and looked out to see Hale running down the stairs with Khabeer behind him. She called out, “I need help, he shot himself,” Saulsberry told police.

He said he went down to the parking lot, where he saw Khabeer trying to drive Hale away, and heard her saying again, “He shot himself.” Khabeer had a gun missing its magazine in the car, he said.

Sean Simmons, another neighbor, said he’d just arrived home when he saw a group of people trying to help Hale. Khabeer wanted to take Hale to the hospital herself, Simmons said, and he advised her to wait for the police and ambulance that were on their way.

When he asked Khabeer what had happened, she told him there had been an argument but did not elaborate. He said he saw her with a gun in one hand and a magazine in the other, telling police she ran back toward her apartment with the weapon before officers arrived.

Neighbor Polyanna Beller, who called 911, said she had just arrived at the apartments when she saw Hale, bleeding from his leg, running from around the back of the building. Beller said she had to stop Khabeer from driving Hale away and had tried to help the wounded man.

She said Khabeer told her the couple had been arguing and Hale had shot himself by accident; however, Beller said, she thought it was odd that she’d heard Hale say, “I’ve been shot, call 911!”

Emily Withrow told police she was in an adjoining apartment where she could hear lots of banging and arguing. She said she heard a loud “pop,” then heard a woman screaming and yelling, fol- lowed by the sound of people running downstairs.

Withrow told police she heard arguing about 10 minutes before the pop, telling police all had gone quiet, then she heard glass break and then the pop.

Khabeer told police that the couple argued because Hale believed she was being unfaithful and that he cursed her and chased her out of the apartment, then locked her outside. During the argument, Hale had hit her, which he has done before, so she struck him back in self-defense, she said.

She said he shot himself as they argued through a window, stating that she broke out the window to get to Hale.

Khabeer said she unloaded the weapon and put it on the couch.

Hale was saying he needed to go to the hospital so she got her keys and went with Hale to her car.

She also told police she had taken the gun to the car and unloaded it there, and further contradicted herself by saying she did not actually see Hale shoot himself.

Khabeer changed her story again to say that Hale had been beating on her for a few days and that the day of the shooting, he was assaulting her, asking, “OK, b **** , you ready to die today?”

Khabeer said she was able to take Hale’s gun away from him but he grabbed a hammer and knife, stating that she was outside the apartment and fired through the window to protect herself.

Asked why she didn’t leave before the shooting, Khabeer responded that it was because she wanted her marriage to work.