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

Just days before a hitman shot and killed a popular teacher in a Dunkin’ drive-thru in Cheltenham, police say, he killed a 35-year-old man in North Philadelphia.

Zakkee Stevens Alhakim faces murder charges in the death of Rachel King, of Elkins Park, who was shot at point-blank range while she sat in her SUV with her 11-year-old son in the backseat, authorities said. Police say Alhakim killed King at the behest of Julie Jean, who had been in a relationship with King’s boyfriend that ended when King learned that the man was also dating Jean.

Furious at the breakup, authorities say, Jean hired Alhakim to kill her romantic rival.

Jean, 35, has been charged with murder in the April 11 death of King, a teacher at Grover Cleveland Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia. The man Jean paid to shoot King, Alhakim, is a cousin of the father of Jean’s children, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Jean’s arrest.

As detectives were investigating that crime, police said, they linked Alhakim to another slaying in Philadelphia four days earlier.

Using a digital trail of cell phone records that included hundreds of text messages, photographs and a Google map location and by linking the gun and getaway car that police say was used in both killings, investigators were able to connect Alhakim to the slaying of James Farrell, 35. Alhakim was arrested for that crime on the same day police say he killed King.

At 10 p.m. on April 7, Philadelphia police responded to the 5100 block of North Broad Street for reports of gunfire and found Farrell with multiple gunshot wounds. Farrell, of the 5300 block of North 12th Street, was taken to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead minutes later.

Eleven 9mm shell casings were found at the scene of the shooting of Farrell, and police were able to match them to the six 9mm shell casings found at the scene of King’s murder, determining they came from the same gun.

Alhakim was charged with murder and related crimes in both shootings.

The investigation into King’s death helped Philadelphia detectives solve Farrell’s murder, police said.

After King was killed, Montgomery County authorities released images of the silver Mercury Sable the shooter used to tail King from her apartment in Lynnewood Gardens, to the Dunkin’ less than three miles away in Cheltenham Township. A Philadelphia police detective contacted a Montgomery County detective soon after the images were released, saying he believed the Mercury Sable had been used in another homicide four days earlier.

On the day King was killed, Philadelphia police detectives spotted a Mercury sedan that matched the description of the car involved in Farrell’s murder on the 1300 block of Duncannon Avenue. When the detectives tried to pull the car over, the driver — later identified as Alhakim — led police on a high-speed chase through the city, then crashed the car into a fence before he was arrested.

Police seized the vehicle and recovered an Android cell phone that they later used to tie Alhakim to Jean — and then to King’s killing.

Investigators traced the car’s path from Montgomery County to Philadelphia and back to Montgomery County. Police learned that the car had been traded in at an Abington dealership, which resold it to a Philadelphia dealer, who later sold the car to Jean for $1,500.

The dealer told investigators Jean and Alhakim came to look at the car together on March 30. The dealer said Alhakim told him he was buying the car for himself but registering it in Jean’s name.

When police spoke to Jean on April 12, she told them Alhakim’s cousin, not Alhakim, came with her to buy the car and denied paying for the vehicle, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. She also said she had no idea King had been killed until police told her, the affidavit said.

After poring through records for Jean and Alhakim’s cell phones, investigators learned that Alhakim was in the area of the Dunkin’ around the time that King was killed.

A screen capture found on Alhakim’s phone showed the exact location of King’s apartment pinned on Google maps, along with a red trail highlighting the route to King’s home. Various photos of King were found on his phone as well, including one that authorities believe Jean had sent to him.

Alhakim’s phone also contained a photo of the “ghost gun” — an untraceable firearm assembled from a kit — that detectives believe was used in both killings.

Authorities also learned that Jean had threatened her former boyfriend, William Hayes, after he broke off their relationship. He later took out a protection-from-abuse order. Jean had also threatened King, police said, and called her at work in the days leading up to the murder.

It was unclear how — and how much — Jean allegedly paid Alhakim to kill King. Investigators found a record of only one financial transaction between Jean and Alhakim on Jean’s phone, $5 that she sent him via CashApp less than four hours after King was killed.

King’s family, who learned about the threats from Hayes, said they were stunned that Jean’s jealousy had turned violent.

“This woman felt a way. She felt a way behind someone not being interested any longer in pursuing them and going back to where they felt comfortable, where they felt love,” said King’s brother Matt. “And she couldn’t take that. And people say ‘Nobody could be that crazy!’ Yes. People can be that crazy. We see it now.”

As difficult it is to imagine that his sister met her death in a murder-for-hire plot, Matt King said he and his family were grateful to authorities for solving the crime and arresting Jean and Alhakim.

“It brings me happiness,” he said. “It brings me much more peace in a sense to know that justice is on the way.”