Trial is scheduled for two Pontiac men charged in connection with the fatal shooting of another Pontiac man — which reportedly stemmed from a spitting incident at the victim’s home.
Jury selection is set to start Aug. 26 in Oakland County Circuit Court for the cases against Sadarie Deshawn Donalson, 23, and Dewaun Benion, 22, relating to the fatal shooting of Cornelius Jones, 33. Donalson is charged with second-degree murder, resisting/obstructing/assaulting a police officer and weapons-related crimes. Benion, his alleged accomplice, is charged with solicitation-assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.
The shooting happened Feb. 21 in an apartment in the 200 block of Carriage Circle Drive in Pontiac. According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, witnesses told deputies that just before he was shot, Jones had asked Donalson and Benion to leave his home because one of them spit into his sink — which Jones said was ″disrespectful.″ That’s when Donalson allegedly opened fire, hitting Jones multiple times.
Jones died soon after at a local hospital.
Donalson and Benion fled the apartment after the shooting, the sheriff’s office said, but were subsequently arrested.
Donalson is held in the Oakland County Jail, denied bond. Benion’s also in the jail, with bond set at $75,000 cash.
Judge Jeffery Matis will preside over the trial.
Sheriff holding public town hall Monday on home break-in crime ring, ways to protect against it