DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Two Dallas men arrested for the Aug. 14 shooting death of a young girl have been indicted, court records say.
Davonte Benton, 19 and Tyrese Simmons, 19, both face murder indictments. They are accused of killing Brandoniya Bennett, 9, in her old east Dallas apartment.
Police say the girl was killed in gunfire that was shot into the wrong apartment.Court records say the shooting followed a fight between groups of rappers who had a reputation for writing disparaging lyrics about one another in their music. Police say a fight between the two groups had initially been broken up. However they say some of the rappers later returned and knocked on the wrong apartment door, firing shots inside when nobody answered. Brandoniya was hit. A relative carried the wounded girl out. She died a short while later at Baylor University Medical Center a short while later.The murder indictments are considered less severe than capital murder because of the punishment range. While capital murder carries only two possible penalties, death or life without parole, felony murder has a range of five years in prison to 99 years. In some cases the jury can sentence a defendant to life, but with the possibility of parole in no less than 30-years."I was hoping for capital murder, but I just hope the justice system works out." said Ashton Elder, aunt of Brandoniya. "I'm really hurting this moment, but the only thing I can do is pray that justice is served."In the days following the shooting, Dallas Police first arrested Simmons, then days later detectives arrested Benton.At the time she was shot, relatives said Brandoniaya had been looking forward to starting school. The girl had her nails painted so she would look nice. The two months since the shooting have not healed the pain of the girl's death."We're still taking it pretty, pretty hard." said Elder. "It's not an easy thing to get over. My sister is really still having a lot of problems. Her brother, her dad, me, my mother just the whole family. This is a very, very drastic change for us and a very hard death for us to expect."She says the family is trying to continue forward, but says it's been hard.Court records show Simmons is being held on $500,000 bond. Bond for Benton has been set at $600,000. The higher bond reflects the murder charge and two probation revocations for aggravated robbery.