Man Accused of Killing Muhlaysia Booker, 2 Others Had Her Cellphone After Her Death, Dallas Police Say

The suspect in Muhlaysia Booker's fatal shooting and two other recent Dallas slayings, had her cellphone after she was killed last month, police say.Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 33, faces three counts of murder and remained in the Collin County jail Thursday without bail. He is also accused in the deaths of Leticia Grant and Kenneth Cichocki.Authorities have not publicly offered a motive in Booker's slaying, but police released arrest-warrant affidavits Thursday that offer new details in all three murder cases.Booker, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was found dead about 6:30 a.m. May 18 on a street in Far East Dallas. Police did not find her phone with her body.Police determined that Booker had been picked up in the 2800 block of Lagow Street in South Dallas about three hours earlier by someone in a light-colored early 2000s Lincoln LS without a front license plate, according to an affidavit.Officers also learned from Booker's cellphone records that her phone was still active after her death and was in West Dallas, the affidavit says.A witness picked Lyles out of a photo lineup June 5 and told police he was known to frequent the 2800 block of Lagow Street "to meet with transgender prostitutes," the affidavit says. Another person confirmed that a champagne-colored 2001 Lincoln LS parked in front of a West Dallas apartment building belonged to Lyles.Police were able to get a search warrant for Lyles' cellphone records and determined that his phone was in the area Booker was killed at the time of the shooting and that it then was at to the same areas as Booker's phone afterward, according to the affidavit.Lyles was already in custody in connection with the fatal shooting of Leticia Grant in Far North Dallas when he was linked to Booker's death, police said Wednesday.Grant, 35, was found about 9:30 p.m. May 22 outside the Chatham Court Apartments in the 7800 block of McCallum Boulevard. She had been shot in the head, and she died two days later.Police received a tip June 2 that led them to two witnesses in the case. One of them had confronted Lyles after learning of Grant's death, and Lyles admitted to being in the area when she was shot but denied shooting her, according to an affidavit.Police said that Lyles had been in communication with Grant shortly before her death and that his cellphone was in the area where she was found.A little more than 24 hours after Grant's shooting, Cichocki was shot in an AutoZone parking lot just around the corner. According to an affidavit, Cichocki, 29, had been in contact with Lyles on Facebook Messenger about the sale of Xanax earlier that night. At 10:09 p.m. he sent a message saying he was at the parking lot, and six minutes later he was found with a gunshot wound to his neck, police said.A witness told detectives Tuesday that on the night of May 23 she had been at a nearby laundromat when Lyles came in and started talking to her. They got into her car and drove to the AutoZone, she said.After the witness parked, Lyles got out of the car to use the restroom. Moments later, Cichocki leaned into the driver's side window and the witness "almost immediately heard a gunshot," the affidavit says. The witness, who told police she didn't know why Cichocki had come up to her car, drove away. Cichocki died six days later.Lyles, who has been in custody since June 5, also is a person of interest in the death of 26-year-old Chynal Lindsey, a transgender woman whose body was pulled from White Rock Lake on June 1. He has no apparent previous criminal history.  Continue reading...