A man who dated an Elkins Park woman, and her alleged killer, described the love triangle behind her death

The man at the center of a love triangle that prosecutors say led to the death of Rachel King testified Tuesday that she was the love of his life, his “rock,” and that he had planned to marry her before she was fatally shot in front of her son at a Dunkin’ drive-thru in Cheltenham last year.

“She basically made me a better me,” William Hayes said of King during the murder trial of her alleged killers. “I learned a lot from her. She was my rock, and I didn’t realize how much she was there at the time.”

But Hayes was also forthcoming about the casual sexual relationship he had with another woman, Julie Jean, during a break in his relationship with King.

And when Hayes ended that relationship and got engaged to King, prosecutors say, a scorned Jean set in motion a murder-for-hire plot.

King, 35, was shot five times on April 11 by Zakkee Alhakim, whom prosecutors described as an assassin hired by Jean. Jean, 35, and Alhakim, 34, are charged with first- and third-degree murder.

The two have denied any involvement in the crime, and their lawyers told a jury that the case against them was built on circumstantial evidence.

Surveillance footage played during the trial showed that Alhakim tailed King as she left her apartment in the sprawling Lynnewood Gardens complex in Elkins Park with her 11-year-old son, Jalen, and that Alhakim ambushed her as she was waiting in line at the drive-thru in the Melrose Shopping Center in Cheltenham.

In a recorded interview played during the trial, before Montgomery County Court Judge William Carpenter, King’s son described the harrowing moments leading up to the shooting. He watched from the backseat, he said, as a man he didn’t know walked up to his mother’s window and fired at her.

» READ MORE: Accused killer of teacher Rachel King is linked to a North Philly murder that happened days earlier, police say

As he clutched a teddy bear given to him by an officer at the scene, Jalen recounted waiting until the shooter was gone before crawling over to his mother to check on her. He called her name and shook her, he said, and used his cellphone to call 911 when she didn’t rouse.

Hayes said he received a call from Jalen’s phone while on his way to work that morning. A police officer was on the other line, and, gradually, Hayes learned of the tragedy that had unfolded.

Hayes told the jury he and King had first met as neighbors who lived a few doors away from each other in Lynnewood Gardens. Their children attended the same school, and they gradually became close, bonding over their shared profession in education. King was a teacher at Grover Cleveland Mastery Charter School in Tioga. Hayes is a director at the Learning Experience, an early-childhood center in Center City.

Hayes said he met Jean during a pause in his relationship with King. They initially spoke on a professional basis, he said, as he helped develop an education plan for her daughter at the school where he previously worked.

When Hayes moved to the Learning Experience, Jean followed him and enrolled her children there.

In time, the relationship grew intimate, and he and Jean began having sexual encounters in her vehicle, he said. They had an on-and-off relationship for 10 months, he said, but he ended the relationship in August 2022 after Jean moved against his wishes to Lynnewood Gardens.

But Jean wouldn’t leave him alone, Hayes said and continued to call and text him, Hayes said, asking why he was “cutting her loose.” She would often walk to his apartment and knock on his window at night to get his attention.

“She didn’t understand when I was done,” Hayes said.

He told jurors he had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Jean in December 2022, after she had begun harassing King and told her about the relationship with Hayes. But Hayes said Jean continued to contact him, and goaded him into one final meeting in which she tried to seduce him.

Jean’s lawyer, Shaka Johnson, cast doubt on Hayes’ version of events. He suggested that Hayes had helped Jean move into Lynnewood Gardens — she had used him as a reference on her application — and only pursued the protection-from-abuse order as part of his courtship with King. He didn’t truly feel unsafe, Johnson said.

“You decided to wield the court as a sword, and use it against Julie,” Johnson said.

Prosecutors have said that after the breakup with Hayes, Jean provided Alhakim with pictures of King, as well as directions to her apartment. And they said she gave him money to buy the gun that he used to kill her and the car that he drove to scene of the crime.