A man awaiting trial for kidnapping and strangling to death a 16-year-old Michigan girl in an attempt to stop her from testifying against her accused rapist has died from cancer, officials said.
Gerald Bennett, 63, of Detroit, was admitted to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing on Nov. 7 for oncological treatment, US Attorney Mark Totten said Tuesday.
Bennett, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, was placed on a ventilator the next day after his “health declined substantially.” He succumbed to medical complications Monday, the US Attorney’s Office announced.
Bennett’s death came just 3 months before jury selection was set to begin in his federal trial stemming from the 2018 abduction and murder of 16-year-old Mujey Dumbuya.
In 2017, Dumbuya had accused Quinn James — a maintenance worker at her high school — of sexually assaulting her when she was 15. She had been scheduled to testify at his trial in April 2018.
But in January 2018 – four months before she was set to take the witness stand — Dumbaya was snatched from a bus stop, and her semi-nude body was found days later dumped in the woods in Kalamazoo, about 50 miles southeast from her Grand Rapids home. The girl had been strangled.
Totten said James hired Bennett to help him kidnap and kill Dumbuya, and the two men were charged in state court with murder.
James, 48, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in April 2019 to life in prison without the possibility of parole — but Bennett was ruled unfit to stand trial and charges against him were dropped in March 2022.
The case then was referred to the FBI and federal prosecutors, and a federal grand jury indicted Bennett in August of last year on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire resulting in death; kidnapping resulting in death; kidnapping a minor victim, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.
A forensic psychologist concluded that Bennett had faked incompetency.
“While Bennett was in custody awaiting his competency hearing, he allegedly solicited another murder for hire in an effort to silence a key witness,” the US attorney’s office said. “Bennett also allegedly admitted to inmates in the jail that he was faking his incompetency.”
A judge ruled last April that Bennett was competent to stand trial on Feb. 26.
In the wake of his death, the federal case against Bennett has been dismissed.
“The allegations in this case were heinous and I deeply regret we will never present the evidence against Mr. Bennett in open court,” Totten said. “At best, our efforts can secure only a measure of justice. We can’t bring Mujey back. But the truth-telling role of a conviction matters.”
With Post wires