Serena Williams’ Sister Killed: Shooting, Sentence, and Parole

Serena Williams’ eldest half-sister, Yetunde Price, was shot and killed on September 14, 2003, in Compton, California, when gunfire from a house associated with gang activity struck the SUV she was riding in. She was 31. The man who fired the fatal shot, Robert Edward Maxfield, eventually pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. He was paroled in 2018.¹

Who Yetunde Price Was

Yetunde Price was born in 1972 to Oracene Price and her first husband, Yusef A.K. Rasheed. She had two full sisters, Isha and Lyndrea Price. When Oracene married Richard Williams in 1980, Yetunde gained two younger half-sisters: Venus and Serena.²

She was a registered nurse and co-owned a hair salon with a high school friend. As Venus and Serena rose in professional tennis, Yetunde also worked as their personal assistant, traveling with them to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open as early as 1997. Serena later said Yetunde had “changed my diapers” as a baby and nursed her through a torn quadriceps muscle in 2003, only months before the shooting.³

Yetunde was a mother of three: Jeffrey, 11 at the time of her death; Justus, 5; and Jair, 3. After the killing, the children were raised by their grandmother, Oracene, in Florida.⁴

How the Shooting Happened

Shortly after midnight on September 14, 2003, Yetunde was riding in the passenger seat of a white GMC Yukon Denali driven by her boyfriend, Rolland Wormley, on East Greenleaf Boulevard in Compton. The location was about a mile and a half from the public tennis courts where Venus and Serena had trained as children.¹

As the SUV passed a house authorities described as a known site for gang and drug activity, gunfire erupted. A round from an assault rifle struck Yetunde in the back of the head. Neighbors reported hearing between six and 20 shots, and an assault rifle was recovered at the scene.⁵ Wormley drove to a relative’s home, where someone called 911. Yetunde was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.¹

Prosecutors ultimately argued the shooting was gang-motivated revenge aimed at rival gang members, not a response to any dispute involving Yetunde or Wormley personally.¹

Who Was Charged

Two men linked to the Southside Crips were charged: Robert Edward Maxfield and Aaron Michael Hammer. Maxfield was identified as the shooter who fired the assault rifle. Prosecutors alleged Hammer fired a separate .22-caliber handgun during the incident but acknowledged his weapon was not the one that killed Yetunde.⁶

Maxfield was arrested in Athens, California, in January 2004 after months of tracking by police.¹ Both men pleaded not guilty, and the prosecutions ran into serious trouble.

Hammer’s jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquittal, and Judge Jack Morgan of Compton Superior Court dismissed the murder charges against him in November 2004. Hammer was sentenced to three years in state prison on a separate charge of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.⁷
Maxfield’s first trial in November 2004 ended with a hung jury split 6-5-1, with six jurors favoring acquittal.⁸
His second trial in April 2005 also hung, this time 11-1 in favor of conviction.⁸

The Plea and Sentence

With a third murder trial approaching, Maxfield’s attorney, Robin Yanes, urged him to accept a deal. On the eve of that trial in 2006, Maxfield entered a no contest plea to voluntary manslaughter, a significantly lesser charge than murder.⁸

On April 6, 2006, Maxfield was sentenced to 15 years in state prison at Compton Superior Court. The hearing was the first time Venus or Serena Williams attended any of the court proceedings. Wiping away tears, Serena delivered a victim impact statement addressed to Maxfield: “I wasn’t going to speak today because it’s too hard for me to talk.” She continued, “I wanted to let you know that this was unfair to our family, and our family has always been positive and we always try to help people.”⁹

Parole and What Followed

Maxfield served roughly three years in jail between arrest and sentencing, then about 12 more years in prison. He was paroled in March 2018. A spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation disputed characterizations of the release as “early,” though Serena Williams told Time he was paroled three years short of his full sentence.¹⁰¹¹

Serena learned about the parole through Instagram, 10 minutes before her July 31, 2018, match against Johanna Konta at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose. She lost 6-1, 6-0, a result she called the worst defeat of her professional career and the first time in 928 matches she failed to win more than a single game. “I couldn’t shake it out of my mind,” she told Time. “I was just there, and I didn’t know what to do.”¹²

In the same interview, Serena spoke about forgiveness. “No matter what, my sister is not coming back for good behavior,” she said. “It’s unfair that she’ll never have an opportunity to hug me.” Asked whether she had forgiven Maxfield, she replied, “The Bible talks about forgiveness. I’m not there yet. I would like to practice what I preach, and teach Olympia that as well. I want to forgive. I have to get there. I’ll be there.”¹¹

Maxfield was arrested again in Compton in August 2018 for an alleged parole violation. The nature of the violation was not publicly disclosed, and he was released from county jail days later.¹⁰

The Family’s Grief and Legacy

The Williams family released a statement shortly after the killing calling Yetunde “our nucleus and our rock” and describing her death as leaving “a void that can never be filled.”¹³

In her 2024 ESPN docuseries In the Arena: Serena Williams, the third episode, “Point of No Return,” described how grief and depression after the murder dropped Serena out of the top 100 rankings.¹⁴ Serena reflected on the closeness she and Yetunde had built in the months before the shooting, when Yetunde was nursing her through the quad injury. “We got so close in those last six months,” she said. “It was a miracle that I broke my muscle. We were able to spend so much time together, and it was that I’ll never forget.” She identified the hardest moment as telling Yetunde’s three children what had happened: “I just remember, we stayed by an apartment that time and we just played Uno.”¹

In November 2016, Venus and Serena opened the Yetunde Price Resource Center in Compton, a project of the Williams Sister Fund. “We definitely wanted to honor our sister’s memory because she was a great sister; she was our oldest sister, and, obviously, she meant a lot to us,” Serena said.¹ The center provides trauma-informed services to community members affected by violence, including individual therapy, arts programming, and senior community events, and has partnered with local nonprofits on food distribution and resource mapping for Compton residents.¹⁵

1
People. Serena and Venus Williams’ Oldest Sister Yetunde Price’s Death
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People. All About Serena and Venus Williams’ Siblings
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Today. Serena and Venus Williams’ Siblings
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Page Six. Boyfriend of Serena Williams’ Dead Sister Recalls She Was Killed
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ESPN. Williams’ Half-Sister Slain in Compton
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Sydney Morning Herald. Man Escapes Williams Sisters Death Case
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ABC Australia. Charges Dropped in Williams Sister Murder Case
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Los Angeles Times. Maxfield Sentenced to 15 Years
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ABC Australia. Gangster Gets 15 Years for Killing Tennis Stars’ Sister
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People. Serena Williams’ Sister’s Killer Paroled From Prison
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The Globe and Mail. Serena Williams Says She Learned Her Sister’s Killer Was Paroled
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USA Today. Serena Williams’ Sister Yetunde Price
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Los Angeles Times. Williams’ Sister Killed in Compton Shooting
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The Hollywood Reporter. Serena Williams Docuseries In the Arena Trailer
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Essence. Serena and Venus Williams Give Back to Violence Victims