A Philadelphia woman was bound over for court on murder and related charges last week after a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Shepard Garner.
Zykia Speller, 37, is charged with the stabbing death of 45-year-old Kevin Williams in Chester on March 14, 2025.
Garner heard from former Chester Officer Brianna Schrader, now with the Southern Chester County Regional Police Department, who was the first on the scene.
Schrader said she got the call at about 11:12 a.m. and responded within a minute to the alleyway behind 2776 W. Second St., where she found Williams lying face-up suffering from a deep cut to his chest.
Speller was also present and identified herself as Williams’ wife, Schrader told Deputy District Attorney Danielle Nispel.
Schrader said she immediately packed the wound and began CPR on Williams, so her body camera was not running for the first 30 seconds or so of her arrival, but Speller told her during that time that she saw Williams get into an argument with a neighbor in the alley and that the neighbor either shot or stabbed the victim and then ran off.
Speller, who Schrader identified in court, told the officer that no one else was in the home.
Additional officers and emergency medical services arrived soon after and transported Williams to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Schrader said she remained on scene and assisted in securing the area.
Schrader said both doors to the home were locked and that another officer had to force entry to the rear door. She noted there was a blood trail leading to the rear of the home and that the exterior knob to the rear door did not have blood on it, but the interior knob was “covered in blood.”
Also inside the rear door was some clothing and a puddle of blood near a mop, she said.
On cross-examination by defense counsel Ryan Grace, Schrader said Speller was on the phone when she arrived and was acting in a frantic manner.
She said Williams could not speak and was gasping for air, and estimated that he fell unconscious within about 45 seconds of her arrival.
Schrader was only ever on the first floor of the home and said she did not see a knife or any firearms.
Delaware County Detective Vincent Port also testified that he arrived at the scene close to noon, but had to wait for a warrant to be issued before entering the home.
While outside, Port said he saw a gray Dodge Dakota in the rear with blood all around the front tires and on the door handles, as well as a blood trail leading to the rear door.
Inside, he said there appeared to have been an attempt to clean the puddles of blood in the rear interior with a cleaning agent.
Port told Assistant District Attorney Bryan Barth that he recovered three firearms from the upstairs: A Glock 10 mm from a lockbox under the bed in the front bedroom; a second gun on a windowsill in a bathroom adjoining the front and rear bedrooms; and a third firearm in the rear bedroom.
The rear bedroom appeared to be belong to a woman, Port said, and police also recovered an ID for Speller from that room along with a key fob for a gold Chevy Malibu parked out front. Detectives also determined the Dakota parked in the rear was registered to Williams.
A medical examiner’s report indicated Williams died from a stab wound to the chest and that the manner was homicide, Port said.
He said a knife was recovered inside the home and had been sent out for testing, but what appeared to be dried blood on the knife did not test positive for blood.
Port said there also appeared to be two bullet strikes inside, one on the sloped ceiling of the stairwell and one on a step midway down the staircase. A fired projectile was recovered from underneath a tank top in the pile of clothing about 10 feet from the stairs.
Testing on the three guns recovered from the residence is still pending, he said.
Port said Speller had left the scene, but police were able to track the victim’s cellphone in Philadelphia. Speller had Williams’ phone on her when she was arrested a couple of weeks later, he said.
Grace argued at the conclusion of the hearing to dismiss all homicide charges, arguing there had been no evidence presented that his client had done anything to Williams. At this point it is unclear exactly what happened, Grace said.
Nispel countered that while no one actually saw Speller stab Williams, it was clear that he was stabbed inside the house and not outside by some vanishing neighbor, as Speller told Schrader.
The fact that Speller and Williams were inside together, that someone attempted to clean up the blood in the interior, and that Speller left the scene and did not go to the hospital where Williams was taken all lend weight to the commonwealth’s case, Nispel argued.
Garner held Speller on charges of criminal homicide, murder in the first and third degree, voluntary manslaughter, possession of a weapon with intent and possession of a firearm prohibited.
She remains in custody at the county jail in Concord without bail awaiting formal arraignment at the County Courthouse in Media on June 17.