The Murder of Keyonna Blakeney (SOLVED)

Keyonna Blakeney was a twenty-two-year old transgender woman working as a prostitute at a Red Roof Inn, in Rockville, Maryland. She was murdered by Washington, D.C. residents, Keith Christopher Renier and Arbra Arine Bethea in a robbery gone wrong.

The murder occurred on April 16, 2016 in room number one-hundred-seventy four at the Red Roof Inn, in Rockville, Maryland after Arbra (who knew Keyonna) planned to rob Blakeney with Keith. Posing as a new customer, using Renier's cellphone, Bethea made several calls to Keyonna before meeting her at the hotel, a hotel which Blakeney, an escort, was using as a private place to engage in prostitution.

When Keyonna was greeted by Arbra, also seeing Keith, the robbery was initiated. Blakeney most likely fought back; being stabbed repeatedly during the process. An affidavit by Montgomery County police shows through a confidential source that Bethea and Renier are the suspects. Investigators also gathered additional evidence that the two were involved, by utilizing cellphone records and interviews with an Uber driver, who brought the two men to the hotel from Arbra's home in Southeast D.C.. The affidavit also reveals that the two men confessed to family members of the killing.

Both Arbra and Keith were charged with first degree murder in 2016; however their charges were reduced the following year due to both accepting plea deals. Keith who was twenty-two-years old at the time of the stabbing, was sentenced on August 22, 2017 to thirty years in prison for second-degree murder. Arbra, who was seventeen-years old at the time of the homicide, was sentenced on November 9, 2017 to ten years in prison for accessory to the fact second-degree murder.