Fabeka Shainna Hayes, 31, was shot and killed as she left work at a Church’s Fried Chicken in New Iberia, Louisiana, on May 12, 2020. Surveillance shows her exit the restaurant, turn and run back inside to escape a man waiting in the parking lot identified as her recent ex-boyfriend, Clarence Payton. Coworkers tried to secure the door, but Payton forced his way in and shot Hayes in the head before taking her purse and fleeing.

Police later found Payton hiding under a nearby vehicle and recovered Hayes’ purse and phone, the weapon, and bloodstained clothing from a nearby house. Forensic testing at the Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory matched DNA on the clothing to Payton, linking him to the crime. Payton pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery on January 20, 2023, and received a total sentence of fifty years in prison: forty years at hard labor for Hayes’ death and a consecutive ten years for armed robbery, with no probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

Did anyone who knew Fabeka or who worked at that Church’s Fried Chicken have details about interactions the night of May 12 that could help clarify the timeline?