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UPDATE: Spelman Shooter Gets Life Plus 25 Years

Maria More — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:00:05 +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 22:00:51 +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 22:11:08 +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.

No Bond For Alleged Spelman Shooter

Parents Of Slain Spelman Student Sue Clark Atlanta University

Searcy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:07:01 +0000

VIA: AJC.com

The parents of a dead Spelman College sophomore want Clark Atlanta University to pay them for pain and suffering they and their daughter suffered after the 19-year-old woman was hit by a stray bullet while walking on the CAU campus.

Constance Franklin and Clint Ronald Lynn, parents of Jasmine Lynn, filed a lawsuit Thursday saying there should have been better security on the Clark Atlanta campus, which is in a high-crime area just west of downtown.

Attorney Roderick Edmond said the parents never expected their daughter to come home to Kansas City, Mo., “in a box.” And if there had been more security patrols, if more campus roads were closed and if there were more security cameras, “this element that wandered onto the campus wouldn’t have been there,” and Lynn would be alive.

Clark Atlanta spokeswoman Jennifer Jiles declined to comment. “We have not been served with the legal documents. And the university does not comment on pending legal matters,” Jiles said.

Lynn was shot Sept. 3 by a stray bullet moments after she left a dorm on the Clark Atlanta campus, one of four schools in the Atlanta University Center complex.

Devonni Manuel Benton, a 21-year-old ITT Technical Institute student, has been charged with her slaying. He and his family say that Benton was not the shooter. They say homicide detectives have the name of the man who fired the bullet that struck Lynn some distance away.

According to police, Benton and his friends were walking near the campus when they got into a fight with a group of Clark Atlanta students. Police said Benton fired six times as he retreated down the street, possibly trying to scare someone.

Lynn was hit in the chest, and a friend walking with her, 18-year-old Clark Atlanta student Jerome Jones, was wounded in the wrist.

Benton was arrested a month later and was indicted on Oct. 16.

According to the lawsuit filed in Fulton State Court, the college knew how dangerous the streets were but did nothing to warn students or to make the area safer.

“This is not the first time this has happened at Clark Atlanta. Something needs to be done, Franklin, the mother, said at a news conference.

She said there was much more security at the neighboring campuses of Spelman College and Morehouse College.

“They want accountability for the death of their child,” Edmond said.

Said Franklin, “no money amount can heal my pain.”

The suit said Clark Atlanta “failed to exercise ordinary care to properly secure” the campus even though this type of crime was “foreseeable.”

The suit said Lynn, a psychology major with a 3.8 grade point average, was careful but unaware of the dangers.

Without specifying an amount, the parents are asking to be paid for “the full value of their daughter Jasmine Lynn’s life, including economic damages of loss of earning capacity and non-economic damages, including loss of enjoyment of life.”

The parents asked to be reimbursed for funeral and burial expenses and any physical and emotional “pain suffering and anxiety” Lynn suffered before her death.