Mother to daughter's alleged killers: 'I want this to haunt them'

Keiauna Davis planned to buy supplies for her daughter Aliviyah's birthday party after getting off work Thursday.

Davis, 27, wanted to throw the party the following day while her mother, Sheila Detwiler, was in town to help Davis's 19-year-old sister pack up for a move to Detwiler's home in Charlotte, N.C.

Detwiler said she wanted to buy a larger home so Davis and her two young children could move to Charlotte, too. Detwiler planned to look at a bigger home to fulfill that dream when she returned to North Carolina on Sunday.

All those plans were cut short Thursday when Davis was shot and killed in a robbery attempt as she walked home along Wilkinsburg's Laketon Road.

The men charged in her death allegedly wanted her $3,000 tax refund.

And so Detwiler instead has been planning a funeral and how she will care for Aliviyah, who turns 3 on Tuesday, and her 6-year-old sister Azaylah.

“It wasn't just $3,000 you took. You took so much more from so many people,” Detwiler said of the alleged killers.

Dane James Taylor and Laya Alana Whitley, both 21, and Kaijin Xavier Scott, 23, are in custody and charged in connection with the killing.

Davis had recently received her tax refund and was carrying $3,000 in cash the day she died, according to police. She worked with Whitley at the Dollar General store on Laketon Road.

Whitley texted Taylor about the money, and the two conspired to steal it, police said. Taylor hired Scott, an acquaintance, to give him a ride.

Addressing some social media postings blaming Davis for carrying a large amount of money, Detwiler said it shouldn't matter -- her daughter didn't deserve to die for it.

“I don't care if she told the whole world about it,” she said. “It's ridiculous.”

Scott and Taylor followed Davis in a car as she walked east on Laketon Avenue, according to police. They pulled in front of her, and Scott got out and pretended to fix something on the car, a Toyota Corolla.

Taylor jumped out and chased Davis, who ran and pleaded for him to stop, according to the complaint. Davis fell, and a scuffle ensued. The first shot missed. The second struck Davis in the hip. Taylor grabbed Davis's purse and ran back to the car.

Taylor paid Scott $800 for driving, police said.

The money had been dropped off to Davis by a relative earlier that day, Detwiler said.

“She loved being a mom,” Detwiler said of her daughter. “She was a fun mom. They loved her. We loved her. We still do.”

Left without a mother, the children will go live with Detwiler in Charlotte, Detwiler said.

Their close-knit family is trying to help the children cope.

She said the toddler knows something is wrong, but doesn't quite understand.

“She knows something is not right because she can't see her mother,” Detwiler said.

The older child understands that her mother “is in heaven,” Detwiler said, “but a 6-year-old's mind, it doesn't know how to grieve.”

Detwiler said she wants the three alleged killers to know just how much they took from her family.

“They will suffer much more than my daughter did,” she said. “They've got the rest of their lives to suffer. I want this to haunt them.”

A GoFundMe page set up to help pay for Davis's funeral arrangements had raised about $12,000 as of Monday afternoon. Detwiler said she has been overwhelmed by the support. She said any funds not used for funeral costs will be used to help Aliviyah and Azaylah begin their new lives in North Carolina.

“We'll keep their mother alive with them through pictures, through stories, through memories,” she said. “They'll know exactly who their mother was. She loved them. She had plans for them.”

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8519, mguza@tribweb.com or via Twitter @meganguzaTrib.