Inset: Tanyiah Bell (GoFundMe). Background: The apartment where Bell was shot and killed (WCAU/YouTube).
A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison for the fatal shooting of his pregnant girlfriend, an incident that occurred while she was watching television in their apartment.
In April, Kaiheem Williams, aged 20, was convicted by a Delaware County jury for the third-degree murder of 19-year-old Tanyiah Bell, a crime that took place in November 2024. Williams was also found guilty of aggravated assault of an unborn child and possession of a crime instrument.
Notably, Pennsylvania is one of only three jurisdictions in the United States that still recognizes third-degree murder as a criminal offense.
On Thursday, Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Margaret Amoroso handed down a sentence of 22 to 44 years in prison for Williams.
Judge Amoroso addressed the emotional impact on the victim’s family. According to a report by the Delaware County Daily Times, she expressed empathy for the family’s suffering.
“I wish I had the power to bring Tanyiah back, and if I could, Tylicia, I would,” Amoroso said to Bell’s mother, personally acknowledging her grief. “I see your pain, I do. I see it, but I can’t imagine it.”
The fatal shooting occurred at the couple’s apartment in Lansdowne – a small town located a few miles west of Philadelphia.
The defendant himself called 911 on the day in question and told EMS workers he was “blacked out” and “in there” — another way to say he was high — after smoking, authorities noted.
“I was fried, man,” Williams told first responders, according to a criminal complaint. “I was outside smoking.”
The victim was “clearly pregnant” when the defendant shot her in the head with a .45-caliber handgun. Police transported her body to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in an attempt to save the unborn child. A Lansdowne Police press release lists Bell as being eight months pregnant, with law enforcement saying the child was unlikely to survive without the use of life support machines after undergoing “emergency surgery,” the complaint says.
“The child was born alive at the time of the emergency surgery and is currently on life support with minimal neurological brain activity,” police said. “The condition is irreversible. The child is not expected to survive without the life support machines.”
And, with a name befitting her, the child did survive. The victim’s mother named the child, now a toddler, Miracle Bell.
In the hours after the shooting, Miracle was brain-dead and doctors recommended she be taken off life support, but her grandmother insisted on patience, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Soon enough, there were signs of life. Now, over a year later, Miracle still needs machines to live, as well as near-constant care, but she has gained the ability to move her arms, legs, and head.
“Sometimes I feel frustration and rage, because I look at her and it makes me think of her dad and what he did,” Tylicia Bell recently told the paper. “But when I look at her and I’m caring for her, it makes me think of my daughter and what she would want me to do. She would want me to raise her daughter the way I raised her, and it’s just a feeling of joy. My grandbaby brightens my day.”
During interviews with detectives, Williams said he was alone with Bell at their apartment when he killed her.
“He returned from work, spent approximately an hour in the apartment eating and ‘smoking’ with Bell, and then left to go to the store,” the complaint reads. “He returned home and Bell was ‘fine’ watching TV in the bedroom. He turned around and ‘blacked out.’ His next memory was calling 911 from Bell’s phone because she was shot.”
Williams was arrested on Nov. 15, 2025, and charged with murder in the first degree. Doorbell video obtained from the scene shows him leaving his apartment roughly 15 minutes before he reported the shooting. He was also caught with a .45-caliber bullet in his pocket.
During his trial, the defendant insisted he did not mean to shoot Bell, telling jurors he was trying to put the trigger lock on his gun and dry-fired the weapon believing it was unloaded, the Daily Times reported.
But the gun fired, Williams said, and everything went quiet. Then he lowered his arm and saw Bell with a hole in her head, the defendant told the jury. He said he next touched the woman and she began to bleed.
“I think she’s dead,” Williams said he began shouting as he shook Bell.
At one point during the commotion, Williams testified, he heard a door close, so he looked around and noticed the gun was gone.
“I didn’t want that to happen,” the defendant told the jury. “That’s the last thing I wanted to happen. I don’t understand how I could have let that happen. It wasn’t supposed to happen at all.”
