Woman charged over boy’s death
Arrest warrant issued for person tied to 2020 shooting of 5-year-old
A woman on Houston police radar for the past year in the death of a 5-year-old boy — killed by a stray bullet — has been charged with murder after court records show she planned to be “gone on the first train to Austin” if the authorities closed in on her.
The little boy, identified in medical examiner records as Jordan Allen Jr., was last year making TikTok videos with his family — including two other children — when gunfire erupted in a parking lot in the 8900 block of Richmond. The March 31 shooting sent the boy’s father and kids inside an apartment for safety. The father looked back and saw Jordan slumped over with a gunshot wound to the head. Another witness saw a vehicle speeding away.
Jordan died three days later at a hospital.
Investigators now believe 30year-old Shapree Stoneham — identified in April 2020 as a person of interest, had a role in the fatal shooting, with court records showing she was at the apartment complex with her cousin when a fight broke out earlier that day.
A recorded conversation between Stoneham and a tipster indicates the cousin — whom police identified as person of interest Khalisah Smith — was feuding with a friend of Jordan’s uncle. The clash escalated to violence and someone beat up Smith, court records show.
The women left, but phone records and witness statements show Stoneham and Smith, 20, returned to the apartment complex around 9:30 p.m., when the shooting was reported, according to police.
Charging papers quote a woman in the recording, made after the shooting, as saying, “I’m the best getaway driver.” The tipster identified the voice as Stoneham, and the same woman in the audio said Smith was in a passenger seat.
The woman in the recording then said the boy’s uncle called Smith in tears to accuse her of the shooting.
“That was you. I know it was you. You went back and shot up my people,” the uncle said, according to court records.
The woman in the recording then allegedly encouraged her cousin to cover their tracks.
“Shapree also stated that if the police came after her then she would be ‘gone on the first train to Austin,’” investigators wrote in charging papers.
Investigators reached Stoneham by phone a week after the shooting. She denied having a role in the shooting during their conversation but pinned the shooting on Smith.
She also told investigators she was in Austin and without a ride to Houston to be interviewed further. Police, as of mid-April, do not know where Stoneham is, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. She stopped taking their calls, according to court records.
At the time of the shooting, Stoneham’s cousin was out on a combined $30,000 bond following an arrest on multiple felony prostitution charges. Her lawyer, Blanca Lopez, withdrew from the case after Smith could not be found.
Payment paperwork show Lopez fielded multiple calls from investigators as early as last August about wanting to interview Smith in the child’s death.
Multiple bond forfeiture warrants for Smith’s arrest have since been issued in connection to the prostitution cases, court records show. She has not been charged in connection to the shooting.
A third person of interest whom police identified last year appears to have been cooperative.
Stoneham was initially charged April 22 with capital murder in the boy’s death, but the case was dropped, with prosecutors expressing plans to refile.