Appeal for peace marks homicide victim’s funeral

-- "Let the police and the courts do their ministry," Pastor Harold Wilson pleaded.

He looked down on scores of Keiona Cecilia Tiree Braxton's family members and hundreds more well-wishers.

"Our sweet Kee Kee," he said of the woman he had known since childhood.

She lay in a coffin in front of him, her dark suit a backdrop to the yellow infant's towel draped across her chest.

"I'm weary of these gatherings," said Wilson, summoning memories of the region's murderous past. He spoke of death in Gilpin Court, where the Braxton family once lived.

They were known there as a loving family who gave safe harbor to many children.

"You had a child you couldn't provide for, the Braxton family was there," Wilson said after the service yesterday.

Keiona Braxton, 26, was three months pregnant. She died, the pastor said, from an act that was "misguided, wicked and evil."

Search warrants indicate Braxton was shot, stabbed and left to die in an arson. There have been no arrests.

She had feared for her life in the months before a fire call to her and her boyfriend's apartment in the 5700 block of Crenshaw Road.

It came at about 6:40 a.m., Dec. 31, "a cold winter, breezy day," the brochure at March Funeral Home read.

Already, Kee Kee was 40 minutes late for work at a uniform cleaning business.

"She had never been late before without telling us first," a co-worker said.

In court documents, Braxton related her fear of a woman named Kayla Armstrong, a longtime rival for her boyfriend Kenneth Lee's affection. Armstrong is the mother of Lee's daughter.

"I received . . . harassing phones calls stating . . . that she was gonna kill me," Braxton wrote in a criminal complaint filed Nov. 18, 2007, in Henrico.

"And that she's gonna put more stitches in my head. . . . Kayla offered me to [meet] her for a fight," Braxton wrote.

Criminal complaints and protective orders against Armstrong had been filed by Lee or Braxton since at least 2006, according to court records. They continued until days before Braxton's death.

On Dec. 27, Armstrong allegedly assaulted Braxton and damaged Lee's car, court records show. A protective order was served on Armstrong some 18 hours after Braxton's death.

Described by Henrico police as a person of interest in the arson and homicide investigation, Armstrong yesterday was ordered held without bond on a vandalism charge in a Henrico court.

In Richmond, Armstrong is charged with assault against her sister in an incident that also occurred Dec. 27.

Henrico court records show that Armstrong was convicted of unlawful wounding Sept. 21, 2006; she had knifed Braxton in May that year, leaving wounds that took 22 stitches to close.

Armstrong was sentenced to four years, with all but four months suspended.

Henrico police said this week that the investigation into Braxton's death is proceeding.

At the funeral home, Pastor Wilson spoke to the promise of finding God as an answer to restoring peace in the streets.

"It's time for a change in our communities," he said. Near him, a 10-foot image of Keiona Braxton's smiling face beamed from a large screen.

A procession of some 60 cars made its way through the heart of Richmond to Maury Cemetery after the 90-minute service.

There, family members wiped away tears and placed flowers on a jet black coffin.

But on a nearby hillside dotted with tombstones, a fistfight broke out among perhaps two-dozen people. Witnesses said Kenneth Lee was attacked as he got into his car, igniting a short-lived free-for-all.

"Let them scatter," said one of the four officers called to the scene.

After the burial, the Braxton family gathered for a meal.

Joyce Braxton fought to come to grips with her daughter's death and its consequences.

"I am leaving it all to the police. I'm leaving it all to God," she said.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .