‘If It Was Your Child, Would You Accept What They’re Giving?’ Asks Victim’s Mother of Sentence in Shooting, Homicide

By Laura Berol - September 3, 2024
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Non-Fatal Shooting | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

DC Superior Court Judge Michael O’Keefe questioned prosecutors on the fairness of Riley Benjamin‘s plea deal on Aug. 30 before sentencing him to 15 years in prison for two shootings that left one man dead and another paralyzed from the waist down.

Benjamin, 33, was originally charged with first-degree murder while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm for shooting 31-year-old Maurice McRae on Feb. 19, 2022, on the 3000 block of Bladensburg Road, NE. 

According to court documents, an autopsy showed that the shooting caused McRae’s death on April 27, 2022.

Benjamin was also charged with assault with intent to kill while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, aggravated assault while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a license, threatening to injure or kidnap a person, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and fleeing a law enforcement officer for his involvement in a non-fatal shooting on Jan. 22, 2022, on the 1400 block of Okie Street, NE.

“These cases are eerily similar. Both are innocent people who get shot in the back and paralyzed, and one of them ends up dying,” Judge O’Keefe said.

As part of a plea deal, Benjamin pleaded guilty on June 14 to voluntary manslaughter while armed and assault with intent to kill, in exchange for the dismissal of all other charges in both cases. 

The plea deal recommended a sentence of 15 years for the manslaughter charge. It recommended that the sentence for the assault charge be within the sentencing guidelines and run concurrently with the sentence for manslaughter.

Benjamin had the right to withdraw his guilty pleas if the judge sentencing him did not accept the recommendations.

“Why should I accept this?” Judge O’Keefe asked the prosecutors.

“This is the result of, I can tell you, relatively prolonged negotiations with the defense,” one of the prosecutors said.

The prosecutors said there were “evidentiary issues” with both of the cases against Benjamin.

“This plea agreement brings closure to what has been a prolonged process for these families,” one prosecutor said. “It will avoid the process of appeal, and Mr. Benjamin will go to jail for a long period of time, in our view.”

In an impact statement, the surviving victim told the court of the shooting’s consequences in that he wound up partially paralyzed just as he had a chance of joining an NFL team. He went from being a star college athlete to being unable to walk, use the bathroom normally or father children.

The victim spent days in the hospital in a coma. After he woke, he had to go through extensive surgery and rehabilitation.

“I suffered and struggled to relearn how to breathe because my lungs collapsed,” the victim said. “I’m left with $100,000’s of medical bills.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever have the joy of having a grandchild. There were so many lives that were robbed and impacted from this,” the surviving victim’s mother told the court. “His career was stolen from him. For a child to get to that point, it’s a family sacrifice.”

“As a father we want to give answers to our children, but there are no answers,” said the father of the surviving victim. 

“I mentored young men for most of my life and taught them conflict resolution, but what if you never have a chance to say a word?” the father asked, referring to the fact his son didn’t know his assailants.

The surviving victim’s grandmother told the court how responsible, ambitious and hardworking her grandson had always been.

“Never did we ever think that his path would ever cross with such criminal scum as sits here,” she said.

“He had sixty days when we had time to love on him,” McRae’s mother said, describing her murdered son’s condition in the time between his shooting and his death.

“My son couldn’t go to the bathroom anymore. He had a tube from his stomach that took his feces out through his nose. He had pain at ten every day, and it never went away,” she said.

“If it was your child, would you accept what they’re giving?” McRae’s mother asked protesting the terms of the plea agreement. But she said she supported it because she was afraid Benjamin would be acquitted if he went to trial.

“She’ll wake up at night screaming and yelling,” the great-grandmother of McRae’s young daughter told the court about her great-granddaughter. “She goes to her mother’s house and my house, but she won’t go to many other places because she’s scared.”

“He’s not coming back. It’s not fair at all,” said McRae’s sister. “I didn’t want to come, but I wanted everyone to know my brother was loved. I’m here for him and for his justice.”

“I’m not going to pretend there’s anything I can say to relieve any of the grief that’s in the courtroom today,” Julie Swaney, Benjamin’s attorney, said. “This is not a light sentence, although it feels that way to the families.”

“I don’t want to minimize this. It should never have happened. I take full responsibility,” Benjamin said regarding McRae’s shooting in a passage Swaney read from Benjamin’s presentence report.

“I think it needs to be clear that Mr. Benjamin did not shoot [the surviving victim],” said Swaney. She and the prosecutors said Benjamin was cooperating with the prosecution in the case against Roger Jones, 41, a former co-defendant with Benjamin in the non-fatal shooting case.

“This result seems completely inadequate because of the pain that’s been inflicted on all of you,” Judge O’Keefe said to the McRae family and the surviving victim and his family.

“[Benjamin] does benefit the case going forward so Mr. Jones can be held accountable,” Judge O’Keefe noted. “So there’s some justification for it–for the deal, I mean–even though it doesn’t seem fair, because it’s not fair.”

For the charge of assault with intent to kill, Judge O’Keefe sentenced Benjamin to nine years’ incarceration, the maximum allowed under the sentencing guidelines. Since the sentences run concurrently, Benjamin will serve that sentence at the same time as the 15-year sentence for manslaughter.

Judge O’Keefe sentenced Benjamin to five years of supervised release after his prison term ends. Benjamin’s release conditions include getting a complete mental health assessment and participating in all recommended treatment, completing a life skills training program, securing and maintaining employment, submitting a DNA sample to a law enforcement database, and abiding by stay-away and no-contact orders for the victims’ families.

Benjamin is required to pay $2,000 to the Victims of Violent Crime fund.

No further hearings are scheduled in these cases.