Rachel King: Woman got Philly teacher shot dead in front of son after affair with her boyfriend went sour
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: A man and a woman were found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a Philadelphia teacher at a Dunkin' drive-thru in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, in 2023 as part of a murder-for-hire scheme.
Rachel King was a popular teacher at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in the Tioga-Nicetown section of Philadelphia.
On April 11, 2023, Julie Jean, an Elkins Park resident, and Zakkee Alhakim, a Philadelphia resident, were taken into custody over first-degree murder charges.
Julie Jean had an affair with Rachel King's boyfriend
King pulled into the Cheltenham Dunkin' Donuts while dropping her son off at violin practice. According to the police, Alhakim got out of his car, went up to King's Ford Edge, and fired multiple times.
Police claim that Jean and Alhakim had been plotting King's murder since February 2023. At one point, Jean was having an affair with King's boyfriend, but he ended it.
According to the prosecution, Jean then started to harass King and her boyfriend. In December 2022, her boyfriend was given a Protection From Abuse Order against Jean.
Minutes prior to her meeting with detectives, Jean allegedly erased almost eight hundred text messages from her phone, according to the criminal complaint.
The prosecutor said Alhakim had a picture of a map of King's residence on his phone.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said last year, "I've seen a lot of horrible and even horrific homicides, evil homicides in my nearly 30 years of doing this as a prosecutor," CBS News reported.
Steele went on to say, "And suffice it to say, I am struggling with this one, where a truly innocent woman is targeted in a long, planned murder all because of an ended affair. It's hard to come to grips with."
King had a significant influence on their children's lives, according to the parents of the students she taught.
Julie Jean and Zakkee Alhakim receive life sentences
According to NBC Philadelphia, their trial started on Monday, March 18. The jury was informed that Alhakim and Jean paid $1,500 for the Mercury Sable that Alhakim was driving on March 30, 2023, the day of the shooting.
The jury was shown the two suspects' interrogation videos by the prosecutors. The two received life sentences in prison.
The family of Rachel King spoke with WCAU following the verdicts.
"There really were no winners today. This was not a winning situation at all,” said her father, Rev Allen King. “My daughter is gone. This does not bring her back. We’re glad to have memories of her, but my heart grieves. Aches.”
The family said they were "thankful to God for giving us the strength to go through this, and today is a day of victory for Rachel," according to Rachel's mother Carol King, who spoke with 6abc.
