Jurors deliberating sentence for man convicted of killing friend in Plano bar parking lot Valerie Wigglesworth
Benjamin Newman
Collin County jurors are deliberating the prison sentence for a former Dallas man convicted of murder after he drove his car into a group of men walking in a Plano bar parking lot nearly two years ago.
Benjamin Newman, 24, faces from five years up to life in prison after being convicted by a jury Thursday on the murder charge. He was also convicted on two aggravated assault charges. The sentence for all three charges will be served at the same time.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.
“He took his car and used it as a weapon,” prosecutor Cynthia Walker told jurors. The men Newman ran over that night had been trying to stop him from driving drunk, she said. “They were trying to do the right thing.”
Newman’s attorney Nancy Kennedy urged jurors to consider the lower end of the punishment range. She also asked them to consider whether this was a case of sudden passion, arguing that the whole incident happened really fast, that Newman had been fueled by alcohol and was angry and that he’d been shoved when one bar employee reached into his car to put it in park to try to keep him from driving drunk.
If jurors believe this was a case of sudden passion, the range of punishment on the murder charge is reduced to between two to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that sudden defense does not apply because Newman left the parking lot and had time to think about his actions before he returned and ran the men over.
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