A mother is opening up about her fight for justice after her daughter was killed while celebrating her birthday.
India Thomas was enjoying her 27th birthday in Houston, Texas, with her boyfriend, Darrell Hall, when she died.
Khiyea Kawaun Sanders, 31, was arrested in May and charged with tampering with evidence in connection with the murder investigation. Court officials said they’re still working on capital murder charges.
A ‘Bad Feeling’
Syreeta Chase tells Atlanta Black Star that before her daughter went on her birthday trip, she got this strange feeling.
“I got this really bad feeling around Valentine’s Day,” Chase said. “I told my daughter that I don’t think she should go to Texas.”
Thomas ignored her mother’s concerns and went ahead with her trip. The couple had also planned to go from Houston to Miami as part of the trip.
Chase told Atlanta Black Star the couple had a dysfunctional relationship.
“I didn’t want it to seem like I’m bashing somebody who passed away,” she said. “Everybody wanted her to stay away from her boyfriend, but we had to tolerate him because they did have a 5-year-old son together, but it was in a very dysfunctional relationship.”
When Hall moved to Houston, Chase said she told her daughter she didn’t want her out there.
“Somebody was in his ear, trying to convince him that Houston was so great. He was being groomed for something,” Chase said. “He wasn’t a totally horrible person, but you can clearly see that he was a knucklehead.”
Atlanta Black Star asked Chase to specify what she thought Hall was being groomed for, but she said she didn’t know. She claims Sanders and Hall were friends.
Chase added that she was in the process of helping her daughter move away from Hall so that she could be single and have a fresh start.
Trip to Houston
Thomas, who lived in Baltimore at the time, flew out to Houston on Feb. 27. Chase said Hall took her daughter to meet Sanders at a club to talk about a possible business venture.
When the couple got to the club, one of Sanders’ friends picked a fight with Hall, according to Chase. She added that Hall sent her a video showing her daughter looking extremely intoxicated.
“He ended up calling home and telling his mother, ‘If anything happened to me, Bricks did it; he’s trying to get us drunk’,” Chase said. It’s unclear if Bricks is Sanders.
She sent Atlanta Black Star several screenshots of conversations between her daughter, Hall, and herself that night. One picture of both Thomas and Sanders shows them looking “out of it.”
Chase said her daughter stopped texting her around 11 p.m. that night. About four hours later, officers found the bodies of Hall and Thomas.
A Trial of Evidence
Hall was found in the middle of the road, and Thomas was in a ditch. Both had been shot, according to police.
It’s unclear who pulled the trigger. Chase believes that Sanders orchestrated the killings.
Authorities caught Sanders after he was seen moving the victims’ car. Chase said investigators have video of Sanders cleaning the blood off the car.
Sanders also allegedly took an Uber from the scene to his girlfriend’s house. Chase accused him of scamming Hall.
“I believe he thought that the guy really wanted to get money with him, not knowing that the guy was planning on taking the money from him,” Chase said.
Chase believes that Hall was also going to try to get money from her daughter, who had just received her tax return.
Investigators told Chase they didn’t think the motive was money because he still had gold chains in his pocket.
Chase confirmed she turned all of the video evidence over to the Houston Police Department.
According to the Harris County Jail, Sanders has not yet been charged with capital murder. Atlanta Black Star reached out to the district attorney’s office for more information but hasn’t heard back.
