The convicted killer who murdered his ex-girlfriend and College of Miami linebacker Marlin Barnes in a “jealous rage” had his demise row sentence reversed and can spend the remainder of his life behind bars, sparking outrage from the victims’ family members.
Labrant Dennis was sentenced to life in jail with out parole in a Miami-Dade courtroom on Thursday, practically 30 years after he was convicted within the bludgeoning deaths of Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins contained in the soccer participant’s campus condo, NBC Miami reported.
Dennis was convicted of the double murders in 1998 and spent practically 20 years on demise row earlier than he was granted a brand new sentencing trial by the Florida Supreme Court docket in 2017 as a consequence of constitutional points with the state’s demise penalty.
His demise sentence — imposed after a non-unanimous jury suggestion in 1999 — was later dominated unconstitutional.
Florida’s demise penalty guidelines have shifted since Dennis’s first sentencing. Below the newest regulation, a decide can impose demise if eight jurors agree.
Regardless of prosecutors urging jurors to advocate Dennis be executed once more, his protection attorneys pleaded with jurors to spare the killer’s life since he’s proven good conduct for the final 30 years.
“He’s finished virtually 30 years in jail,” one among Dennis’s attorneys, Terrance Lenamon, informed the jury. “He isn’t the identical man who was concerned in these killings.”
The jury’s choice to spare Dennis’s life despatched shockwaves by means of the courtroom as Barnes’ household was left heartbroken by the decision.
“I’m not getting my child again anyway,” Barnes’ mom, Charlie Postell, informed the Miami Herald, including that her son’s killer will now solely must face the Lord’s judgment for the heinous murders.
Barnes’ sister, Charlisia Preston, reiterated her mom’s emotions and mentioned Dennis “ruined our life” when he killed her brother.
“He can escape man, however he can’t escape the judgment God has for him,” Preston mentioned. “He’ll undergo.”
The resentencing revived painful recollections of the 1996 double homicide that surprised the 2 victims’ family members and the College of Miami group.
Investigators mentioned the killer encountered Barnes and Lumpkins at a South Seashore membership the night time earlier than he pressured his manner into Barnes’ condo and killed them, the Miami Herald reported.
Barnes and Lumpkins, each 22, have been left unrecognizable from the brutality of the assault. Barnes had been struck within the head greater than 20 instances with the butt of a shotgun.
The murders have been so horrifying that Barnes’s roommate and former NFL security, Earl Little, testified at Dennis’s homicide trial in 1998 that he discovered the star linebacker “mendacity in a pool of blood, his face crushed.”
Barnes was declared lifeless on the scene, and Lumpkins — who was additionally the mom of Dennis’s 3-year-old daughter — died on the way in which to the hospital.
The murders occurred a couple of week after Dennis and Lumpkins had separated, and she or he turned to Barnes, a buddy from highschool at North Miami Excessive, for assist.
Police recognized Dennis as a suspect instantly, although he wasn’t arrested till a month later, the Miami Herald reported.
Postell testified at Dennis’s trial on Tuesday, telling the courtroom that Barnes’s past love was soccer and that her son co-founded the “Proper Observe” program to maintain native children secure from medicine and gangs by means of tutoring and sports activities throughout his time on the College of Miami.
Her son had additionally been named the workforce’s Most Improved Participant the identical yr he was murdered.
She additionally disclosed the heartbreak she felt having her position mannequin son taken away from her.
“I suffered a ache that also, to today, is indescribable,” Postell mentioned. “My child had a proper to dwell a full and pleased life.”
Lumpkins’ finest buddy, Keisha Carter, additionally testified that Dennis’s actions robbed the 22-year-old of the chance to see her daughter graduate or turn out to be a grandmother.
“We have been purported to develop previous collectively,” Carter mentioned. “She was purported to be my daughter’s godmother.”
