Woman sentenced in North Charleston stabbing

A Charleston County case that started with a brutal 2020 killing in North Charleston just reached another milestone. Keyarra Zakyah Gosa was convicted of accessory after the fact of murder and sentenced after prosecutors said she helped her sister in the hours after Christopher Brown was killed. The point of the case was not that Gosa did the stabbing. It was that she showed up, helped after the fact, and then misled investigators while her sister tried to get away. (charlestoncounty.org) ### Who was sentenced? The woman sentenced was Keyarra Zakyah Gosa. A Charleston County jury found her guilty on April 23, 2026, after a four-day trial, and Judge Jennifer B. McCoy sentenced her to 10 years incarceration, suspended to five years in prison, followed by five years of probation. She had faced up to 15 years on the accessory charge. (charlestoncounty.org) ### What was she convicted of doing? Basically, prosecutors said Gosa helped her sister, Nylesia Mullins, after Brown had already been killed. That is what “accessory after the fact” means here — not the killing itself, but helping the killer avoid detection or capture. The state’s case said Gosa came to the(charlestoncounty.org)ading information to police. (charlestoncounty.org) ### What happened to Christopher Brown? Brown was 32 years old when he was killed in the early morning hours of May 28, 2020, inside a North Charleston townhome rented to Annie Mullins, the sisters’ mother. Prosecutors said Nylesia Mullins stabbed him at least 73 times. Later that morning, a family friend entered the home and found Brown’s body. (charlestoncounty.org) ### Why did investigators think there was a cover-up? The scene looked like someone had tried to erase it but had not come close to succeeding. Police found blood in the back bedroom, bathroom, down the stairs, and in the living room where Brown’s body was discovered, partly covered with a trash bag. Officer(charlestoncounty.org)t looked clean to the eye. It was less a hidden scene than a scrubbed one. (charlestoncounty.org) ### What tied Gosa to that aftermath? The state leaned on surveillance footage, forensic evidence, and Gosa’s own conduct. Prosecutors said video and forensic technology showed she drove to the crime scene around 3 a.m. and later took her sister back to her apartment. Investigators also found a bottle of wound wash, yellow rubber gloves that tested positive for blood, and blood on the passenger-side door of Gosa’s vehicle. (charlestoncounty.org) ### What happened to the sister? Nylesia Mullins had already resolved her part of the case. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on July 30, 2025, and received a 30-year prison sentence. After the killing, she fled to North Carolina, where U.S. Marshals found her on June 27, 2020. Records reviewed by investigators tied Gosa to efforts to help Mullins evade capture. (charlestoncounty.org) ### What about the mother? The case widened beyond the two sisters. Annie Mullins, the mother of both women and the renter of the townhome, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to providing false information to law enforcement. Her sentence was three days in jail. That matters because it shows prosecutors treated the aftermath as a family-enabled cover-up, not just one person panicking alone. (abcnews4.com) ### Why does this case matter now? Because this sentencing closes another piece of a long-running homicide case that stretched across six years, multiple defendants, and separate pleas. Brown’s killing was the core crime, but the later prosecutions make clear that helping after a homicide can carry s(abcnews4.com)m, not side notes. (charlestoncounty.org)