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One Teen To Plead Guilty To Murdering Bobby Tillman

Mark Allwood — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:01:51 +0000

One of the teens involved in the vicious assault that killed 18-year-old Bobby Tillman at a Douglasville house party last November has agreed to plead guilty to murdering him, reports the AJC.com.

Emanuel Boykins, the 18-year-old who threw the first punch that started the random, fatal attack on Tillman, has agreed to plead guilty to felony murder.

The other three defendants charged with Tillman’s beating death have until 5 pm Wednesday (June to decide if they will plead guilty as well. If they don’t, Douglas County will press ahead with death penalty cases against the men.

When Boykins pleads guilty to felony murder on June 29, the malice murder charge will reportedly be dropped.

Boykins and the three other defendants — 18-year-old Quantez Devonta Mallory and Tracen Lamar Franklin and Horace Damon Coleman, both 19 — had initially proclaimed their innocence, saying in a television interview that someone else killed Tillman. The accused even sent condolences to Tillman’s family in the interview.

Read the full story here.

Victim’s Step-Brother Calls G-Dep An ‘Idiot’ For Surrendering To Police

SiMan — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:30:23 +0000

The step-brother of a man murdered 17-years-ago by G-Dep has labeled the rapper an “idiot” for inadvertently turning himself in for the homicide.

G-Dep confessed to shooting 32-year-old John Henkel three times in the chest, killing him on October 19, 1993 during a botched robbery attempt.

On December 15th, G-Dep, born Trevell Coleman, went to police in Manhattan and admitted to the shooting, although he did not know Henkel had died from his gunshot wounds.

“I think he’s an idiot,” John Henkel’s step-brother Robert Henkel told The New York Post.

“He has three kids and a wife. It was years and years and years ago,” Robert said. “Finally, we’re not always thinking about it…and now it has to be dug up all again.”

Last week, a grand jury indicted the rapper for murder.

Read the whole article on AllHipHop.com!

Diddy Says G. Dep Did The Right Thing

Michael Baisden — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:20:12 +0000

Sean “Diddy” Combs hit up Shade 45 this morning and was asked about his former artist, G. Dep, who recently confessed to the shooting a man 17 years ago.

Diddy was unsurprisingly diplomatic in his answers to the questions.

“You could always feel that if you knew G. Dep, and I can’t say it was that, maybe something was troubling his soul,” Diddy said. ” ‘Cause he was real quiet. He’s the type of guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t know what happened in that instance but he did the right thing and manned up to it.”

The man G. Dep shot, John Henkel, died after Dep’s botched robbery attempt. G. Dep is now facing murder charges.

Wright’s Wife Suspect In Murder: Police Surround Her House

Michael Baisden — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:20:02 +0000

More than a half a dozen police cars surrounded the Memphis home of Lorenzen Wright’s ex-wife’s, Sherra Wright, now a suspect in his murder. On Sunday, August 1, 2010, detectives searched inside and out for clues into the murder of Wright’s ex-husband, a former Atlanta Hawk, Memphis Tiger and Memphis Grizzlies.

Wright split his time between Atlanta and Memphis.

The bullet-riddled body of the NBA free agent was found in a field in Southeast Memphis on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. His mother reported Wright missing on July 22nd, saying she suspected foul play. Sherra Wright was the last person to see him alive, telling the authorites she saw him leave her house in Collierville on July 18th.

In another twist to the story, Wright’s attorney says Sherra Wright was threatened at her home by three men who were carrying guns and looking for the former NBA player about six weeks before he was murdered.

Click here to read more from myeyewitnessnews.com.

16-Year-Old Twin Sisters Charged With Killing Their Mother, Friends Not Surprised

SiMan — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:37:49 +0000

From the AJC.com:

Just days after Jarmecca “Nikki” Whitehead was killed, many of her friends had already fingered a suspect, or suspects.

Their suspicions were confirmed Friday when the Conyers beautician’s twin daughters, Tasmiyah and Jasmiyah, were arrested and charged with murder in their mother’s Jan. 14 death. Whitehead was found in a pool of blood, beaten and stabbed repeatedly. The twins will be tried as adults.

“I never thought they were capable of murder before she died,” said Whitehead’s friend and former boss, Michelle Temple. “Who would think that? But after she was murdered, I knew it was them.”

By all accounts, the 16-year-old girls had become difficult for their mother to handle. Once honor students and Girl Scouts, “Tas” and “Jas,” as they were known, continually pushed boundaries, breaking rules and acting out whenever discipline was imposed.

“The girls wanted to do what they wanted to do,” said Yucca Harris, Whitehead’s best friend.

Tas and Jas had moved back home just eight days before their mother’s death. They had been living with their elderly great-grandmother for about a year and a half following an incident in which they physically assaulted Whitehead, requiring police intervention, said Petrina Sims, owner of Simply Unique, a salon where Whitehead worked until her death.

Their great-grandmother had trouble reining the girls in, Whitehead’s friends say.

“She’s an 80-year-old woman,” Harris said of Whitehead’s grandmother. “[Tas and Jas] could get away with just about anything.”

Temple told the AJC that the girls stole $200 from her and they’d also stolen money from their great-grandmother.

“The [great-grandmother] eventually had to get a dead-bolt for her bedroom,” Temple said.

But friends say Whitehead, who raised the girls alone, was determined to start over with her daughters.

“They agreed to start over, to forgive and forget,” Harris told the AJC. Harris said she had a long conversation with her friend’s daughters that night, encouraging them to call her whenever they needed to talk.

“I thought I got through to them,” Harris said.

Conyers Police Chief Gene Wilson said evidence processed in the GBI crime lab links the girls to their mother’s slaying. E ven Jasmiyah’s attorney, Rockdale public defender Owen Humphries, acknowledged, “I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

Both girls have denied killing their mother, Humphries said. A grand jury is expected to hear their case June 7.

The twins had claimed they came home from school and discovered their mother’s body. One of them flagged down a Rockdale County Sheriff’s deputy who was in the neighborhood serving a warrant on an unrelated matter.

With no sign of forced entry, police suspected Whitehead knew her killer.

“There was a point soon after the murder when a lot of people became suspicious of the two girls,” Chief Wilson told the AJC.

Read the full story here.

New Details Emerge In McEachern Football Star’s Murder

Denise Dunbar — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:49:55 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Huddled with family members in a cramped, dark bathroom inside their Powder Springs home, Rajaan Bennett quietly called 911.

The McEachern High School football star told the operator they were being held hostage. A little after 2 a.m. last Thursday, Clifton Steger broke into his ex-girlfriend’s Woodcrest Drive house brandishing a .22 caliber revolver, according to Powder Springs Police, who on Tuesday released new details about Rajaan’s death.

Steger ordered Narjaketha Bennett, 37, Rajaan’s mother, to collect the cell phones belonging to her oldest son Rajaan, his 14-year-old sister, Narcharlette, and uncle Taiwan Hunter, 32. Then the 39-year-old Milledgeville carpenter led his ex, her two children and Hunter into the bathroom. Bennett’s youngest son, who is autistic, was allowed to remain in his room.

Narjaketha Bennett managed to sneak her phone into the bathroom. Rajaan, man of the house since his father’s death when he was in sixth grade, made the call. Powder Springs Police arrived four minutes later. Steger directed Narjaketha to tell officers everything was fine. Instead she bolted out of the front door and told officers what was happening inside.

Steger wasted no time, returning to the darkened bathroom where he began shooting indiscriminately. Fourteen-year-old Narchalette wasn’t hit. Hunter was struck in the abdomen but managed to flee with his niece. Rajaan, struck once in the chest, never got out of the bathroom. Police found him alongside Steger, who turned the revolver on himself.

Hunter is in good condition at Atlanta Medical Center.

Bennett broke up with Steger just a few weeks before the shooting. He urged her to reconsider in several e-mails and text messages, though Powder Springs Police say none of the correspondences contained threats.

McEachern held a memorial service Wednesday night for Rajaan, a budding architect who had signed a letter of intent to attend Vanderbilt University and play football for the Commodores. His funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Trinity Church Chapel of Georgia in Powder Springs.

UPDATE: Spelman Shooter Gets Life Plus 25 Years

Denise Dunbar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:07:19 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

A Fulton County jury found Devonni Manuel “Devo” Benton guilty of murder and two counts of aggravated assault Saturday in the September shooting that killed Spelman College sophomore Jasmine Lynn.

Benton, 21, was sentenced to a life sentence plus 25 years for the random killing along with a weapons possession charge. In Georgia, a person must serve at least 25 years for a first life conviction before being eligible for parole.

The jury deliberated five hours Saturday, stopping for an hour lunch before returning the verdict at 3:35 p.m. This followed about nine hours of deliberation Friday.

Witnesses said Benton fired a gun into a crowd on Clark Atlanta University’s campus in the early hours of Sept. 3.

Lynn, witnesses said, was shot in the chest as she attempted to break up a fight outside one of the university’s dorms.

The 19-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., was the first in her family to attend college. She died with a 3.8 grade-point average.

The three-day trial came to a close Friday when jurors heard final arguments calling for them to either convict Benton, or “give him justice,” as defense attorney Jackie Patterson urged, declaring his client innocent.

Benton has 30 days to appeal the decision, Patterson told the AJC. “I believe he will,” the defense attorney said.

As the verdicts were read, gasps and sighs could be heard throughout the courtroom. Lynn’s mother, Constance Franklin, dabbed tears from her face and members of Benton’s family sobbed uncontrollably in the back of the courtroom.

Sheila Kitchens, Benton’s aunt, was led from the courtroom as Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. addressed the defendant.

“This is absolutely irreprehensible to fire a firearm in the direction of a crowd,” Bedford said. “This is totally a senseless loss of life.”

Bedford said the impact goes far beyond just Benton and Lynn, but to the families of both individuals as well.

“This will not bring her back,” he said to court room. “This is a wound that will never be healed.”

Jury Is Deliberating Spelman Murder Case

Denise Dunbar — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:55:30 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

The fate of Devonni “Devo” Benton, accused of murder in the September shooting death of Spelman student Jasmine Lynn, is now in the hands of a Fulton County jury.

Before Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. released the jurors, they heard final arguments calling for them to either convict Benton or give him justice, as defense attorney Jackie Patterson urged, declaring him innocent.

“Mr. Benton wants you to give him justice,” Patterson told the jury as he gestured to the Scales of Justice on the defense table. “There is no way Mr. Benton committed this crime.”

Fulton assistant district attorney Eleanor Ross was nearly choked up as she placed Lynn’s blood-smeared glasses on top of a photo of the slain Spelman College sophomore, displayed for the courtroom from a projector.

“For getting a scholarship, all that hard work paying off … this is what’s left. This defendant may not have intended to kill Jasmine Lynn on the night of Sept. 3. But when he raised that gun and fired into a crowd, he intended to kill.”

Bedford released the jury just after 11 a.m. Friday, with instructions on how to proceed with deliberations.

The six men and six women must now wade through two days of testimony, with a host of witnesses who were found to have been untruthful at some point, either during the investigation or on the witness stand.

The 12 must consider the circumstances of the fight that started early that morning on Clark Atlanta University’s campus, and the six shots that police and witnesses said were fired by a man wearing a Mohawk, a red jacket and khaki shorts, who dropped a tan and red book bag as he fled.

Patterson continued to blame Benton’s friend, Clarence Carter, for the shooting and pleaded with the jury to let his client go free.

“Mr. Benton is asking you to do something he can’t do for himself,” Patterson said. “That is clear his name.”

Lynn’s mother, Constance Franklin, and grandmother, Carolyn Williams, were in tears as Ross completed her summation.

“It’s a miracle that he didn’t kill anyone else,” Ross said to the jury. “Do not let him avoid taking responsibility for what he did.”

Check back here for updates.

Trial Underway In Spelman College Student Murder

Denise Dunbar — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:06:50 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Today was the start of the murder trial of Devonni Manuel Benton, who is accused of fatally shooting Spelman College sophomore Jasmine Lynn in the early hours of Sept. 3 as she walked past a fight on the Clark Atlanta campus.

Benton wore a black pin-striped suit as he listened to Fulton County assistant district attorney Eleanor Ross preview evidence against him.

“He took that gun out of that American Eagle bag and fired it … not one, not two, not three, four or five times, but at least six times,” Ross told the jury.

She promised to present witnesses who would consistently describe a man with a mohawk haircut with reddish or blondish tips shooting, then dropping a tan bag as he fled.

Benton’s attorney, Jackie Patterson, told the jury that a witness named Clarence Carter was the actual shooter.

“Not only did he do the shooting, he confessed to several friends that he did the shooting,” Patterson said. “There’s no better way of knowing who did the shooting than the shooter admitting that he did it. He confessed to at least two people.”

The prosecution has called four witnesses so far. One was Atlanta Police Officer Jonathan Hanley, who was the first on the scene. Another was Jarvis Jones, who also was shot in the incident. Neither Jones, Lynn’s friend Tiffani Nixon, nor Keith Reid, a person who was involved in the initial altercation, were able to tell jurors that they saw a gunman.

Jones told the jury all he recalled seeing were the colors red and black from the direction of the gunfire. Witnesses told police that the shooter was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and dark colored jeans. Jones said when the gun was fired, he dove toward the ground, then went inside a dorm and pulled the bullet out of his right forearm. Jones had been standing in front of Ware Hall, which is across the street from where the shooting took place.

Reid told the jury he recalled seeing seeing a tall, slender, dark-skinned man flash a gun before the shooting started, but could not remember what the book bag that had contained the gun looked like. He also admitted to the jury that he had lied to the police during the initial part of the investigation. He had told police that he was in a dorm with Lynn, but he had been in a car with people who were involved in the altercation. He contends he was not involved in the fight.

Jasmine Lynn’s mother, Constance Franklin, wrapped herself in white shawl and rocked back and forth while listening to the testimony.

For updates, visit the AJC.com.

“I Love New York 2″ Contestant Convicted Of Murder

Carol Blackmon — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:05:13 +0000

Even though he only appeared on one episode of the VH1 reality show, “I Love New York 2,” Jamal Rashead Trulove is making news headlines after a jury convicted him of murder.

Three weeks after the show wrapped filming in 2007, Trulove, who appeared on the show as “Milliown,” shot and killed Seu Koka in San Francisco, according to prosecuting attorneys.

Trulove lost his chance at being a suitor for Tiffany “New York” Pollard on the reality show during the first episode due to his involvement in a fight.

Trulove is due to be sentenced on March 19th and faces 50 years to life in prison.

“Mo’Nique Show” Stylist Killed By Husband

Carol Blackmon — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:59:09 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

Maureen Allaben, the spunky set decorator for “The Mo’Nique Show” and a local food stylist, was killed Sunday by her husband, who drove for two days with her body in the bed of his pickup truck before turning himself in, authorities said Wednesday.

After killing his wife, Dennis Allaben drove from the couple’s home in Tucker to Virginia and told his relatives there on Monday about the murder, acting DeKalb County Police Chief William O’Brien said. Allaben then fled his relatives’ home, returned to the Atlanta area and early Tuesday morning walked into Clayton County Police Headquarters.

“He just showed up at [Clayton County] police headquarters and said he’d killed his wife,” O’Brien said.

Police then recovered 43-year-old Maureen Allaben’s body, which had been wrapped up, from her husband’s blue Ford pickup. Dennis Allaben, 46, who tested underground storage tanks, is now in custody at the DeKalb jail and charged with murder.

O’Brien said he did not know why Allaben killed his wife. DeKalb detectives, after searching the couple’s three-story brick home in Tucker, found no evidence of foul play. O’Brien also did not disclose how Maureen Allaben was killed.

A DeKalb police report said that on Monday, Dennis Allaben drove to his relatives’ home in Chesterfield, Va., and dropped off his two children. The report did not say if the children knew their slain mother was in the back of the pickup.

Allaben told his relatives that he had killed his wife and was leaving the children with them, the report said. A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at the Allaben home in Chesterfield said the family had no comment.

On Wednesday afternoon, two of Maureen Allaben’s friends and their children showed up at the Allabens’ Tucker home and laid flowers on the doorstep.

“It’s shocking,” said Jennifer Boyanton, whose children went to school with the Allabens’ young boy and girl. “They were a wonderful family. … She could light up a room.”

Tara Gilmore, also a family friend, said her thoughts are with the Allabens’ children. “I just hope they’re safe,” she said. “It’s a terrible loss.”

Maureen Allaben was a “food stylist” who arranged and shot photos of food through a company called Creative Avenues. Among her clients were Atlanta Bread Company, Home Depot, Olive Garden and Turner Broadcasting. She was working as a decorator for the Mo’Nique comedy show on BET.

Close friend Tami Hardeman, who talked on the phone with Allaben late Sunday afternoon, said she gave no indication that anything was wrong.

“It’s so sad,” Hardeman said. “She was at the height of her career, the top of her game.”

Allaben was “an extremely hard worker who was vivacious and full of life,” said Shirlene Brooks of Crews Inc., Allaben’s agent. “She was very giving of her time and her knowledge of the industry.”

Brooks said the Allabens just got a new dog from the pound. “It makes no sense,” she said.