Suspect in Battle Creek murder rejects plea offer
Trace Christenson
A Springfield man charged with murder has rejected a plea offer from prosecutors.
Randale Benjamin, 34, said in a brief court hearing Thursday he won't enter a plea and wants his case to go to trial.
Benjamin is charged with open murder in the May 2019 shooting death in Battle Creek of Brent King, 42. He also faces charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, assault with intent to murder and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
During the hearing, defense attorney Niels Magnusson told Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge John Hallacy that Benjamin was rejecting a proposed plea agreement.
Magnusson said he was told by prosecutors that they were offering Benjamin the opportunity to plead guilty to second-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, and one count of felony firearm with no sentence agreement.
In exchange the open murder charge, which could carry a sentence of life in prison without parole, and two counts of felony firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm would be dismissed along with a fourth habitual offender charge.
"I passed (the offer) to Mr. Benjamin. I discussed it with Mr. Benjamin and let him know that the offer was being held open until Dec 1. and he indicated to me that the offer is being rejected and he wishes a trial on these charges," Magnusson told Hallacy.
King was shot May 27 about 4:02 a.m. as he was walking along Capital Avenue Northeast.
King had been walking with some friends to the scene of another shooting involving another friend when King and a woman walking her dog exchanged words.
A witness at a preliminary hearing in district court last year said as King passed the woman and her dog, he said "woof, woof."
"The girl said I'll let this dog go on you," Catherine Wells testified. "Brent said, 'Do it.'"
It was then that a man, later identified as Benjamin. came off a nearby porch, began to follow the group and then exchanged a few words with King and before he fired five shots from a handgun. King ran a short distance but fell and died in the lawn of a church.
A second man walking nearby with King, Jessey Rathbun was injured.
At the end of Thursday's hearing Hallacy told Benjamin the pre-trial hearing hearing would be reset in a couple of months and then officials may know when trials might resume following closure of the courthouse since March because of COVID-19.
"I am hopeful with the vaccine news that we will begin jury trials sometime in 2021 and your case will be one of those we handle fairly quickly as soon as we are given permission to start jury trials again," Hallacy said.
Benjamin will remain in the Calhoun County jail, held without bond.
Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com