Despite telling a jury she had no recollection of killing her friend, a 20-year-old Peoria woman was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday for the 2025 Peoria riverfront shooting of an 18-year-old.
Deziaah Z. Hunter, 20, was found guilty of fatally shooting 18-year-old Kenadee Wallenfang in a vehicle on the Peoria riverfront last summer, in a case where Hunter, who police say was intoxicated at the time of the shooting, maintains that she has no memory of killing Wallenfang, according to the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office.
In testimony given during the trial, Hunter said she had no recollection of pulling the trigger and shooting her friend in the back of the head. Despite this testimony, evidence gathered by police and prosecutors showed that Hunter placed a gun to the back of the headrest where Wallenfang was sitting and shot and killed her.
A bullet hole in the back of the headrest and powder burns left on the seat indicated to investigators that the gun had been fired from the backseat of the car, where Hunter was sitting, toward the front where Wallenfang was.
Hunter, Wallenfang and a third person were sitting in a vehicle parked along the Peoria riverfront on June 3, 2025, when a gunshot rang out in the vehicle. Why the gun was fired remains unclear, and the third person in the vehicle told police at the time that no argument had preceded the shooting.
In her testimony Hunter said that Wallenfang and another friend picked her up after an argument with her girlfriend and drove to the Peoria riverfront, where the three sat in a vehicle. Hunter said she was crying and upset about the fight while sitting in the vehicle and pulled out a gun and pointed it upward at her head. She said she rested her head on the back of Wallenfang’s seat when the gun inadvertently went off, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Evidence compiled by investigators, however, showed the gun was placed to the back of Wallenfang’s headrest “execution style.” A detective used a bullet trajectory rod to determine that it was “as if someone was sitting in the backseat behind the driver with the gun raised and pointed directly into the back of the driver’s head, execution style,” the state’s attorney’s office said.
A firearms expert also testified and said the gun was equipped with a safety lock mechanism to prevent accidental discharges.
Hunter’s defense tried to argue in court that the shooting was not intentional because Hunter had pulled Wallenfang from the vehicle and attempted CPR on her while also placing a sweatshirt behind Wallenfang’s head. Another witness told police that Hunter appeared to be in shock after the shooting.
Hunter, from the beginning, had told investigators the gun was fired accidentally, but investigator evidence ultimately convinced a jury otherwise.
Sentencing for Hunter is scheduled for June 24.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Woman found guilty of ‘execution style’ killing on Peoria riverfront
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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