Miami Historian
Appearances
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Earl Little comes home and it's about 7.30 in the morning. but he cannot get in. There's something blocking the door. When he finally gets in, he sees what's blocking the door, and it's Marlon. He has been brutally beaten. He's almost unrecognizable. Police officers arrive on the scene around 7.30 to 7.35.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
So one of the officers goes through the apartment, clearing the rooms, and in one of the bedrooms, he comes across a second victim. A woman. She is partially underneath the bed as if she had been drug out from underneath it before being attacked. Just like Marlon, she had been brutally beaten.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
In Marlon's pocket, they found cash, and he still had on his chain around his neck.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
He has been brutally beaten. He's almost unrecognizable.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Outside, they searched Earl's car, where they found puncture marks in the tires, as if they had deliberately been slashed.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators really needed to piece together what happened that night and which one of them was being targeted.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Through a meeting with Marlon's teammates, they found out that on the night of Friday, April 12th, 1996, Marlon was invited to attend a VIP party at Salvation Club being hosted by a Dolphins football player. And he invited Tim Juanica Lumpkins to join him. They went to the club alone, driving Earl Little's car that Marlon had asked to borrow.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Also at the party, they linked up with Chewbacca, who was a teammate of Marlon's. And then they all left together. But when they got outside, they found that the tires of Earl's car had been slashed. Chewbacca got a ride home with a friend, and Marlon and Timwanika waited for a tow truck to come and pick them up.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
LeBron and Tim Juanica had actually been living together up until about a week prior to the crime taking place.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
The fact that LeBron Dennis showed up on his own accord to be interviewed by police was very interesting. It's something that you typically don't see.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
LeBron told investigators that LeBron and Timonica had been on and off for five years, but they had a three-year-old daughter together. That a week prior to the crime taking place, Timonica had moved out because she had come home late after what he believed was hanging out with Marlon Barnes. And a fight broke out. So she moved out, taking her daughter to her grandmother's house.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
LeBron was extremely cooperative with the investigators and willing to get still photos of his arms and his face to prove that he had no injuries. He was even willing to give them any information that they needed in regards to his car and where he was that night.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
LeBron was a person of interest because of the relationship that he had with Tim Winicka, and they shared a daughter. But he was very open with investigators, and he was able to have his alibi confirmed by not only his friends, but his roommate.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
After canvassing the surrounding area, investigators met with a gas station attendant at an AMCO that was just blocks away from Club Salvation. In the early morning hours of April 13th, the gas station attendant saw a gray Nissan in the parking lot of her gas station with a man inside of it.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
According to the tow truck driver, he dropped them off at Marlon's apartment between 5.30 and 6.30 a.m.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
There were no defined suspects. However, the only person that kept coming up was LeBron Dennis.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
This gray Nissan was something that was important to the case. But this was going to prove to be a very challenging lead to see through.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators did as much legwork as they possibly could when it came to finding their suspect in this green Nissan. A friend of Marlon's from Scott's project explained to investigators something that they had not heard before. And it was the fact that Marlon was involved in the Right Track Foundation.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
The purpose of the Right Track was to inspire children from low-income areas, such as Scott's Project, where Marlin grew up, to leave the gangs behind and not break down in fear, giving in to these gangs that were recruiting them.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators started questioning if this could have possibly pissed a lot of the gangs in the area off because this was their recruiting grounds. Was anyone angry about the fact that Marlon was there? Many of the gangs in the area actually had it as an initiation protocol that you would have to beat someone into a closed casket funeral.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Whoever had done this was willing to get up close and personal with their victims and brutally attack them at a very close range. So investigators had to find a way to prove if this motive was true. Was there a gang member that had targeted Marlon and wanted him gone?
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators took a photograph of the car and took it back to the gas station attendant who confirmed that this was the car she saw in the early morning hours of April 13th.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators were able to track down Watisha Wallace, and they brought her in for an interview.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
At this point, investigators had a positive ID on the car and a connection to LeBron with this car. And though they had somewhat of an alibi, it was confirmed by his roommate, which was actually his cousin, Caroline. But it was not enough to take to trial. They needed some sort of forensic evidence that could tie LeBron Dennis to Marlon Barnes' apartment.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
April 7th was when he gave it to LeBron. It wasn't until April 13th that Joseph heard from LeBron again. Joseph receives a call from LeBron telling him that he had returned the shotgun to his mother's house in the bushes outside of the home. When Joseph picks up the bag, it is much heavier than it was when he gave it to LeBron.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
He opens it up and inside he finds a black hoodie, black sweatpants, black boots, and the shotgun that is now extremely damaged. Joseph tells LeBron that he wants nothing to do with whatever he has done. According to Joseph, LeBron responds saying, don't worry, they would never think to come here. I just had to do what I had to do and I didn't even drive my own car.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Investigators bring Joseph in to be interviewed on April 29th. In this interview with Joseph, investigators asked him where he had dumped the shotgun and the knife that he gave to LeBron.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
There were large chunks of wood missing. The trigger guard was gone.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
they discovered large splinters of wood and another piece of metal lying nearby. In addition to this, there was what looked to be a shotgun trigger guard. The police felt like they had enough to arrest LeBron Dennis. The very next day after recovering the murder weapon, investigators arrested LeBrant Dennis for the murders of Timwanika Lumpkins and Marlon Barnes.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Through interviews with people that knew them, investigators were able to piece together a timeline of the weeks and days leading up to the murder.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
LeBron believed that Tim Wanika had gone to stay with Marlon.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
When LeBron got inside, when the shotgun did not work, he was so committed to ending both Tim Winicka and Marlon's lives that night that he brutally beat their faces in with the butt of the shotgun so badly that he broke it.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
On May 8th, LeBron Dennis was indicted for two counts of first-degree murder, one count of burglary, assault and battery while armed, and criminal mischief. The district attorney determined that the murder of Marlon Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins was absolutely premeditated. LeBron Dennis contacted Joseph about retrieving a gun on April 7th, which was days prior to the murder taking place.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
And the jury recommended the death penalty, an 11 to 1 vote.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Miami in the 90s, this is the time of Hurricanes football. They had a legacy ongoing since the 80s of being just one of the top programs in the nation.
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Death in the Dorms Season 2: Episode 3: Marlin Barnes
Miami in the 90s, this is the time of Hurricanes football.