{"id":127375,"date":"2025-08-07T21:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127375\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:42:11","slug":"murder-suspect-claims-he-was-ordered-to-kill-pregnant-teen-at-phoenix-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127375\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder suspect claims he was ordered to kill pregnant teen at Phoenix park"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 New court documents reveal what led to the murder of a pregnant Valley teen<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

Jechri James-Gillett, 18 and Jurrell Davis, 36<\/a>, are charged with the murder of 16-year-old Zariah Dodd. Police say Davis was the father of Dodd\u2019s unborn child, and James-Gillett was her current boyfriend. Dodd was 22 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.<\/p>\n

Around 6 a.m. on July 5, Phoenix police were called to Marivue Park near 57th Avenue and Osborn Road<\/a> after a witness discovered the teen\u2019s body. Court documents say she had been shot in the head.<\/a> No casings or shell fragments were located at the scene, and the then-unidentified girl did not have a cell phone or identification on her.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage from a neighbor\u2019s home captured the sound of a gunshot around 2:30 a.m. on the day of the murder. Court documents say shortly afterward, the video shows an unidentified person walking in the park. Less than 10 minutes later, an SUV flashed its headlights in a \u201cmanner consistent with signaling,\u201d according to court paperwork. The person then got in the vehicle as it left the area. <\/p>\n

\"JechriJechri James-Gillett (right) and Jurrell Davis (left) are charged for the murder of 16-year-old Zariah Dodd.(Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n

On July 9, Phoenix detectives were contacted by Surprise police, who were investigating Dodd as a missing runaway. Surprise police say that on the evening of July 4, Dodd left her group home with a man and did not return. <\/p>\n

Court documents say Dodd had requested to go to a friend\u2019s home that night, but was denied by a case worker. She was granted permission to go for a walk, and that was when the men picked her up. According to investigators, Dodd left the group home with a laptop, a pink and purple tumbler and a blue purse.<\/p>\n

Dodd had reportedly texted a friend, stating that she had been in the car since she left the group home. \u201cWe are literally driving in circles,\u201d Dodd\u2019s text message read, as detailed in court paperwork. She also reportedly texted a girl at the group home that she was afraid.<\/p>\n

Investigators say Dodd\u2019s cell phone was turned off around 2:30 a.m. and turned back on two hours later. It was tracked to 33rd Avenue and Bell Road, less than two miles from Davis\u2019 home near 35th Avenue and Greenway Road. <\/p>\n

Davis was located and taken into custody on July 15. As authorities were searching his vehicle, they found a pink and purple tumbler, matching the one Dodd owned. <\/p>\n

In an interview with authorities, Davis claimed that he was in California for 10 days and returned on July 11. He stated he lent his SUV to James-Gillett while he was gone. However, cell phone records proved Davis\u2019 story wrong, as data showed it was in the area of Marivue Park on the day of the murder.<\/p>\n

On July 31, investigators arrested James-Gillett at a home in Goodyear. Court paperwork states he had been living at the home since the day of the murder.<\/p>\n

\"ZariahZariah Dodd was 22 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.(Arizona’s Family)<\/p>\n

Police say James-Gillett made a \u201cfull confession to the murder of Zariah.\u201d He claimed that Davis had ordered him to shoot Dodd or Davis would kill them both, court paperwork states. He reportedly said he regretted his actions and \u201cwished he could take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis continued to deny being involved or knowing anything about Dodd. But when confronted with evidence, investigators say he admitted to picking up Dodd and James-Gillett and dropping them off at the park. Davis left and returned when he got a call from James-Gillett, stating that he had killed Dodd. Davis denied ordering Dodd\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

Both men are being charged with two counts of first-degree murder, with one count for Dodd\u2019s unborn child<\/a>. Davis is also facing an additional charge of sexual conduct with a minor. <\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 New court documents reveal what led to the murder of a pregnant Valley teen last…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,7182,1589,7183,77939,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,70018,71249],"class_list":{"0":"post-127375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-azfamily","12":"tag-phoenix","13":"tag-phoenix-news","14":"tag-pregnant-teen-murder","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-zariah-dodd","22":"tag-zariah-dodd-murder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114989665515002965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}