Jury set for trial of man accused of killing Spelman student

Benton’s attorney, Jackie Patterson, seeks to prove that another man – one of Benton’s friends – pulled the trigger.

The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Fulton County Justice Center courthouse.

Jury selection began with a reprieve for the defendant.

Among the charges levied against Benton, which include felony murder, the attorney prosecuting the case agreed to drop the count for gang activity.

Benton listened Tuesday morning as Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. said the language "criminal street gang activity" would be stricken from indictment files the jury would read.

Ross called the 20-member rap group "SPC" that Benton belonged to, "like a gang."

One witness who was with Benton the night of the shooting, and who also was in the fight believed to have spurred the shooting,  had the letters SBC tattooed over his right eyebrow, police said.

And "SPC Entourage" was written on a composition book found in a book bag linked to Benton, according to police reports.

"We still anticipate asking about SPC because, at the time, SPC was used to associate Benton" to the shooting, Ross told Bedford.

Benton's trial goes to court within only five months of the shooting incident, as opposed to a year or more that typically is the time before a case goes to trial.

Patterson filed a speedy trial request with Bedford in November to limit the amount of time Benton is in jail.

"Mr. Benton has asserted all along he was not the shooter," Patterson told the AJC last week. "He didn't need to be sitting in jail for two years before this case got to trial."

Lynn's grandmother Carolyn Williams told the AJC on Monday evening that she welcomes the expedited trial.

"The sooner the better for me," she said.  "I want to know why. I want some closure."

Lynn's parents filed suit against Clark Atlanta University in November, alleging the campus did not have enough security.

Benton is accused of shooting into a crowd of individuals fighting on the Clark Atlanta campus, striking down the 20-year-old Lynn as she walked by.

The defense will tell the jury that one of Benton's friends pulled the trigger, not his client.

"This is one of those cases where the wrong person was identified," Patterson said. "It was his friend, Clarence Carter, who did the shooting."

No one from the Fulton County District Attorney's office was available Monday to say if Carter was subpoenaed.

And Patterson would not provide information to identify and contact Carter, the man he alleges fired the fatal shot.

Patterson said he hopes for a chance to cross examine Benton's friend, and said Carter's absence from the stand would help the defense's case.

"If he doesn't come, what more do we need to prove my client is innocent?" Patterson said.

Lynn, a sophomore from Kansas City, Mo., was returning to her dorm just after midnight after visiting a friend on Clark Atlanta's campus.

According to police reports, a fight started between two groups of men at the corner of James P. Brawley Drive and Mitchell Street.

Witnesses told police that a thin black man with a "mohawk" haircut, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and jeans, fired into the crowd of combatants then fled, dropping a tan book bag.

Lynn, an unintended target, was hit in the chest by the gunfire and died within an hour at Grady Memorial Hospital, authorities said.

The tan book bag, police later learned, belonged to Benton.

One other person, Jarvis Jones, suffered a gunshot wound, but survived. And one of Benton's friends, Marquis Jones, was beat up during the initial melee, and, while recovering from his injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital, helped lead police to Benton, according to police.

Patterson said he wants Benton to proclaim his innocence in his own words.

"My client will be taking the stand to tell the jury he was not the killer," Patterson said. "There is no way Mr. Benton had a gun that night."

Williams, Lynn's grandmother, said she is just glad she won't have to wait years for a verdict.

"I want to get it over with," she said.

-- Staff reporter Bill Rankin contributed to this story.