A Bronx man accused of shooting his cousin to death was flopping in the apartment of the victim, an ex-con who had been encouraging the oft-arrested suspect to pursue a better path in life, relatives say.
Jaire Drakes, 20, is one of four young men charged with murder for the shooting of his 32-year-old cousin Xavier “Zay” Goodson in the eye, stomach and buttocks during a clash inside the victim’s home in Wakefield on March 20.
After Goodson’s murder, a group of young men fled the victim’s home, a two-story brick rowhouse on E. 231st St. and Laconia Ave., through a back window, authorities say. They ran to an apartment in the the nearby Edenwald Houses, where they were rounded up by police, with four of them, including Drakes, charged with murder the next day, officials said.
“Your family kills your own family? How can you hate your family so much?” Goodson’s 28-year-old fiancée said. “Zay tried to uplift everyone around him. He wants everyone around him to be good.”
Cops recovered shell casings from two guns in Goodson’s home, leading police to think there may have been more than one shooter who opened fire about 4:05 p.m.
Goodson died after being rushed to Jacobi Medical Center.
After spending much of his adult life in prison, Goodson was paroled in March 2022 for a 2013 manslaughter conviction, state correction records show.
Relatives said Goodson had recently been planning to leave the city with his fiancée and two daughters.
“He was good to his kids,” Goodson’s sister told the Daily News. “He came home (from prison) and just turned his whole life around. A full 360. He was very spiritual. He would meditate for hours. He worked out.”
Goodson had dreams of opening a physical fitness business and tried to steer neighborhood youths like his cousin away from trouble, his family said.
“Zay was trying to lead (Drakes) the right way but (Drakes) was just being young, rebellious,” the sister, who did not give her name, said. “(Drakes) didn’t want to listen to nobody. That’s cruel.”
Drakes has 26 prior arrests, the most of any of the four suspects, police said.
In the moments before the shooting there was some sort of argument in the victim’s apartment, with Drakes feeling disrespected by his cousin, a police source said. Relatives said Goodson had recently been complaining Drakes didn’t do anything but invite friends over and smoke weed.
“He’s only 20 years old,” Goodson’s mother, who wished not to be named, said of Drakes, her nephew. “Now his life is finished.”
Drakes was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court March 23 on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
During Drakes’ arraignment, prosecutors got word from the NYPD that shell casings recovered at the scene where Goodson was murdered matched a gun found inside the apartment on E. 229th Drive North in the Edenwald Houses where Drakes was arrested, about two blocks from the victim’s home.
“The defendant left the home after being involved in the murder of his cousin” and “fled the location with the three other co-defendants to the other location where the firearm was recovered,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Sierra Fisher said in court. “This defendant was arrested inside of the home in close proximity to the murder weapon.”
A similar-looking gun appeared in Drakes’ hands in a music video posted to social media, prosecutors said. Drakes’ lawyer did not return a call for comment.
Also arrested and facing murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges are Jahiem Pasco, 22, of Williamsbridge, Kelvin Woods, 20, of Kingsbridge, and Naesean Jackson, 20, of Bridgeport, Conn.
A relative of Pasco’s, who was the only one of the group released without bail, said he was shocked that the 22-year-old had been arrested and charged with the murder. “He’s not that person, I’ll tell you that. Jaheim is a sweet child,” said the relative, who did not give his name.
Many years earlier, the Edenwald Houses would play another crucial role in the victim’s life.
Goodson’s prison stint was for chasing down and beating to death 17-year-old Antonio Lyles in 2013 after the teen opened fire at Goodson and his pals while they stood outside the NYCHA development.
Antonio didn’t hit anyone but Goodson was among about a dozen young me and women who chased the shooter for seven blocks before some of them viciously beat him for five minutes, witnesses told The New York Times. At one point someone cracked Lyles’ head open with a large rock.
The teen died after clinging to life for 13 hours.
Goodson was arrested four days later with an accomplice by a fugitive task force after fleeing to Utica, according to NBC4 New York. Three other men were also arrested for the killing.
A few months after finally being paroled Goodson was arrested for choking someone, police said, but Goodson’s family says he was trying to prevent his younger cousin from going down the same path that had landed Goodson in prison.
“He’s in the streets,” Goodson’s mother said of Drakes. “My son was like, ‘You don’t want to go through what I’ve been through. Try to do better!’ But he didn’t want to do better.”.
According to a criminal complaint, Davis and Drakes committed a pair of cellphone robberies together in the Bronx in 2023, in one case approaching the victim with a knife and saying “Give me your passcode or I’ll stab you”.
Drakes is being held on Rikers Island on $500,000 bond as he awaits trial.
