Kenneth Coney and Cassie Coney slapped with just a misdemenor after their teen son uses their unsecured handgun to shoot dead his classmate, Anaya Zachary outside a Baytown, Texas apartment complex.
‘You left the gun where the baby could get his hands on it!’
The parents of a 13 year old teen boy who admitted to the shooting death of his 14 year old classmate, outside a Baytown, Texas apartment complex last month have been charged after failing to secure the murder weapon.
Kenneth Coney, 61, and Cassie Coney, 37, have been charged with making a firearm accessible to a child, a misdemeanor. The charges were filed at the Harris County court house on Monday, KHOU reported.
Anaya Zachary, 14, was gunned down moments after the teen girl getting into an argument with her 13 year old classmate while riding the school bus.
At the time of the shooting death, Anaya upon returning home from school, on the afternoon of March 21, 2025, asked her grandmother if she could go outside for a little while.
Unbeknownst to the girl, the 13 year old boy who she had gotten into a fight with while riding the school bus, upon arriving home, changed into black clothes, put on a mask, and took a gun from a travel bag that belonged to his parents and left the family home, intent on finding the teen girl and ‘punishing her’.
When Anaya saw her classmate with the gun, she tried to run. Sadly, she was shot and died at the hospital later that evening. Court documents indicate the boy shooting Anaya 4 times with his parents unsecured handgun.
The boy, whose identity has not revealed as a consequence of being a juvenile according to court documents after having shot Anaya, went back home and put the gun where he had found it. The 13 year old has since been charged with murder and is to be tried as a juvenile.
Investigators determined the firearm used in Anaya’s slaying was left readily accessible to the teen because the blue bag where the juvenile found the gun in was closed with a zipper, and didn’t have a locking mechanism to secure it.
Police attempted to speak with the parents, Kenneth Coney and Cassie Coney, on March 22, a day after the shooting. They refused to provide a statement, court documents show. A Child Protective Services case worker also told police that the parents refused to provide a statement to CPS in an effort to avoid incriminating themselves, according to court documents.
Kenneth and Cassie Coney told police that they retained an attorney, but no defense attorneys for them were listed in online court records as of Tuesday morning.
Anaya’s father, Joseph Zachary, speaking to KLTV said every day since then has been a challenge.
‘It’s been real hard. Just when the buses are passing now. I’m out here every day in the afternoon looking for my child, or in the morning looking for my child. It’s really hard,’ the grieving parent said.
Anaya’s family says they feel some sense of relief now that the parents of the suspect are also facing charges. Not that it will bring their daughter back or necessarily erase the grief and pain they are likely to experience ongoing.
To date the boy’s parents have yet to be arrested, despite the issuing of charges. Charges the teen girl’s parents feel do not go far enough to hold the juvenile suspect parents to account.
‘The parents just have this misdemeanor slap on the wrist. No, I am not comfortable with that. This is no misdemeanor,’ Joseph Zachary told reporters.
Added Anaya’s aunt Kelly Zachary, ‘why didn’t the parents have a lock on the gun?’
‘You left the gun where the baby could get his hands on it!’
Meanwhile, both Anaya’s father and aunt had her name tattooed as a memory and hope that they get justice for the teen.
‘The violence needs to stop, parents need to take account of their weapons and make sure they’re locked up,’ Anaya’s aunt said. ‘Talk to their kids to see if there’s any problem about anything that’s going on.’
