For Immediate Release
July 13, 2022
A 25-year-old Independence, MO, man has been charged in the fatal shooting on July 7, 2022, of Demarion Benjamin in the area of 51st and Lawn Avenue, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.
Malijahjuan M Smith, dob: 2/12/1997, faces Murder 2nd Degree and Armed Criminal Action charges.*
According to court records, Kansas City police were dispatched in the early morning of July 7, 2022 to the area of 51st and Lawn in Kansas City. They found the deceased victim in the grass. Spent shell casings were also found in the area of the body. Detectives found that the last phone number the victim had contact with that day was at 1:26 a.m. and that phone was connected to a person associated with the defendant. The defendant told police initially that he didn't know that the victim had been killed. But he eventually told police that he was involved in the victim's fatal shooting outside a parked vehicle.
Prosecutors requested a cash-bond of $150,000.
For more information, contact:
Michael Mansur
Director of Communication
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office
Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor
Work : (816) 881-3812
Mobile : (816) 674-3954
www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com
mmansur@jacksongov.org
*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded guilty.