9-year-old Dallas girl’s murder trial ends in mistrial, suspect offered 5-year plea deal

DALLAS - The man accused of killing a 9-year-old Dallas girl pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after his murder trial ended with a mistrial.

On Friday, a judge was forced to declare a mistrial in Tyrese Simmons' trial for the 2019 shooting death of Brandoniya Bennett. 

Initially, prosecutors were going after a murder charge and a life sentence for Simmons, but the judge declared a mistrial after two state witnesses charged their testimony.

"There are situations where people change their testimony either before trial or maybe during trial and between trials. When that happens, it severely compromises our ability to prosecute a case," said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.

Simmons pleaded guilty to manslaughter and to jumping bail while out on bond.

During the trial, prosecutors tried to prove that Simmons fatally shot Bennett while feuding with another wannabe rapper who lived near her Old East Dallas apartment.

The little girl’s aunt became emotional while testifying about what happened.

Ashton Elder said she heard a loud commotion outside, including threats to shoot the place up.

Brandoniya Bennett

Elder said she and the children took cover. But just as Bennett asked to get her snacks from the kitchen, gunfire erupted, and she was killed.

The defense argued other people outside Bennett’s apartment could have fired the fatal shot. There was also no DNA evidence or weapon that linked Simmons to the crime.

Jurors also heard from two key state witnesses who changed their story on the stand.

"Their witnesses fell apart on the stand," said defense attorney Josh Healy. "There were two witnesses back-to-back who they needed to prove their case and after cross-examination and digging into some evidence, we had their witnesses couldn’t hold weight anymore."

Healy said by law the judge was required to declare a mistrial.

"The witness in the first trial said the gun was in the other guy's hand and then in this trial said it was in my guy's hand," he said.

The second witness, a 16-year-old girl, also changed her story.

"[She] testified completely opposite to what her video statement gave," Healey said.

With the murder charge thrown out, the DA's office decided to offer Simmons a plea deal.

"Cases may be compromised, and it may lead to a plea bargain to occur that otherwise would not seem on the way that you see a case or the way it was initially reported to be justified. We have to look at a case and make a professional decision based on what we have when we make the decision and unfortunately, that's the way cases happen," Creuzot said.

As part of the plea deal, Simmons agreed to serve five years in prison for "recklessly causing the death of another human being."

"Whether he was a party to or pulled the trigger, he pled guilty to manslaughter," Healy said. 

Simmons also received a two-year sentence because he cut off his ankle monitor and fled just before the trial was originally scheduled to begin. He will be allowed to serve those two sentences at the same time. 

"We just felt this was a deal that was hard to pass up on, especially since he has about a year and a half back time, so he'll be eligible for parole in about a year and a half," Healy said.

Russell Wilson, an attorney not involved in the case, said a variety of factors played into both sides accepting a plea deal.

"When people are saying different things about the same thing, that inherently could create reasonable doubt. And I'm sure that the defense attorney seized upon that," he said. "The state is probably taking the risk of, we don't want to try this again and the person not have any penalty at all, or why don't we try to reach an agreement where we get some amount of justice, although perhaps not what we believe we should have gotten."

A second man, Devante Benton, was convicted of murder in the same case. 

Benton was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in the shooting, even though police believed Simmons was the one who pulled the trigger.

Healy said he expects Benton's attorney will file an appeal based on the new testimony.