DALLAS, TX – Four teenagers have been arrested and charged in connection with the robbery and shooting death of a 60 year-old man while he was loading groceries into his car in the parking lot of a Dallas, Texas Costco, authorities say.
Jacoby Tatum, 19, Janiya Miller, 17, James Levels, 17, and an unnamed 16 year-old juvenile, have been charged with capital murder in the death of Ali Elbanna, 60, according to officials.
Capital Murder is the most serious crime in Texas, and is the state’s only offense punishable by death. It is defined as when a person “intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat.”
Police say that Elbanna was packing bags of groceries into his car outside of Dallas Costco when he was approached by the four suspects who demanded he surrender “property” to them; during the robbery attempt, the 16 year-old is alleged to have shot Elbanna once, fatally wounding him.
Officers responding to the incident discovered Elbanna suffering from the gunshot wound; Dallas Fire-Rescue transported the victim to a local hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
The four suspects were later located and arrested by Dallas police, who reportedly tracked them down via stolen smartphones that they had in their possession.
Levels, Miller, 17, Tatum, 19, and the 16 year-old juvenile have all been charged with capital murder, since they were all allegedly involved with the robbery together. In addition, Miller is also facing two additional charges of aggravated robbery in connection with two different robberies that took place earlier that afternoon as well.
According to arrest documents, Miller robbed iPhones and a necklace from two women near a local area high school at approximately 4:40 p.m., prior to the alleged robbery and murder of Elbanna later that day; police say that Miller admitted to the robbery of the two women while being interrogated.
The three adult teens are being held on bonds of $500,000 each.
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