Battle Creek man ordered to trial in May homicide
A Battle Creek man was ordered to trial Tuesday in the May shooting death of Brent King on the city's north side.
The ruling in Calhoun County District Court against Randale Benjamin, 33, came after testimony from a pathologist that King, 42, of Battle Creek was shot five times before he died.
King was shot as he was walking along Capital Avenue Northeast about 4:02 a.m. on May 27.
King had been walking in the 300 block with some friends on the way to the scene of another shooting involving another friend.
Battle Creek police said the shooting occurred after King and a woman who was walking her dog exchanged words and then Benjamin came off a nearby porch, confronted King and then shot him.
On Tuesday, Assistant Calhoun County Medical Examiner Dr. Theodore Brown told District Judge Frank Line that King was shot five times — once in the chest, twice in the back and once in each arm.
King ran a short distance and then collapsed and died in the front yard of a church.
A second man walking with King, Jessey Rathbun, 34, was wounded in the shooting.
In an earlier portion of the hearing in August, Catherine Wells testified she was with King and, as they walked along the sidewalk, they passed a woman walking her dog.
"Brent looked back and said, 'woof, woof,'" Wells testified, and "the girl said, 'I'll let this dog go on you.' Brent said, 'Do it.'"
Wells testified that moments later a man, who she identified as Benjamin, came off a porch, briefly exchanged words with King and then shot him.
During questioning by Prosecutor David Gilbert, Brown said all the gunshots went through King's body and that the most significant wound was to his back.
He told defense attorney Niels Magnusson from the Calhoun County Public Defender's Office that King had a small quantity of alcohol and marijuana in his blood.
Benjamin was ordered to trial in circuit court on charges of open murder, assault with intent to murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felon.
Benjamin faces life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted on first degree murder.
He remains in the county jail, held without bond.
Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson