MELVINDALE, Mich. – Two men have been charged in connection with the brutal killing of a 29-year-old Melvindale woman who was five months pregnant.
Jacob Barnes, 23, of Lincoln Park, and Jeremy Lee, 16, of Detroit, were charged with felony murder, first-degree murder, assault of a pregnant individual causing death of a fetus and mutilation of a dead body.
Lee will be charged as an adult offender.
Officials said Barnes and Lee fatally assaulted Benton at Woodmere and Cabot streets in Detroit. Benton was beaten in the head, neck and abdomen. Police said the men put Benton in the trunk of her car and drove her to an abandoned house in the 8000 block of Vanderbilt in Detroit, where they allegedly set her body on fire.
Police said the men drove off in her car and left it in southwest Detroit.
Barnes and Lee were arrested Sept. 30 by Detroit police. They are expected to be arraigned Thursday at 10:30 a.m.
Family: Benton killed over Dodge Neon
Family members say Benton was battling addiction and that she was burned alive over a car.
Family members said the mother of four was battling drug addiction, but was trying to kick the habit.
“My daughter had some demons she was fighting,” Tom Benton, Amanda’s father, said. “She was turned away from so many different rehabs because she didn’t have the right insurance or enough money.”
Florine Harper, Benton’s mother, said she was killed over a Dodge Neon. She also said that Benton was burned alive.
“How can someone so young be so evil?” Tom Benton said. “They tortured my daughter."
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