DAYTON — A woman admitted in court Friday that she was the one who drove two young men to a Dayton neighborhood, just moments before gunfire killed a 12-year-old girl.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Twelve-year-old Isabella Carlos was shot and killed while sleeping in her bed in June 2024.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Thieves accused of stealing from Ohio man’s home, knowing he was dead inside
- Ohio missionary accused of sexually abusing children in Haiti
- 1 dead after crash on I-70 in Huber Heights during winter weather
Police arrested two brothers about two weeks after the shooting, Javen Connor and Antawan Benson.
Investigators said their gunfire missed the intended target.
The details became clearer when a woman who said she drove the brothers to an apartment complex for a fight took the stand.
Prosecutors asked Malia Bailey about the guns Benson and Conner allegedly had in their hands as they ran back to her car parked two blocks away.
Bailey told the jury she had a sinking feeling about what had happened.
She claimed she did not know that they had brought the guns with them to Fairview.
She’s seen them with the guns a couple of hours earlier at a Trotwood apartment complex.
Prosecutors showed body camera video from a Trotwood officer speaking with a group that included Benson and Conner.
That came after a woman reported she’d been threatened by men with guns in an apartment complex.
Bailey said she was asked to drive Benson and Conner to Fairview so they could fight a woman’s boyfriend.
“Everybody was mad that this stuff got posted, everybody was just mad,” Bailey said.
Bailey told the jury that Benson and Conner were mad at a woman who posted private medical information online about a relative of theirs.
She said Benson demanded her phone as she drove away, and he and Conner made a video.
Bailey was at one point charged with obstruction for not telling police she knew about the night the first time they spoke with her, but she struck a plea deal that would make her testify in both Benson’s and Conner’s trials.
Benson’s trial will continue on Monday.
This story will be updated.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
