Three people charged with murder, robbery in October Charlotte homicide

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged three people this week in an October homicide of a 30-year-old man in west Charlotte.

Za’Cariya Smith, 19, Malik Rose, 24, and Marquel Coleman, 26, were charged with murder, robbery and conspiracy, according to a police press release Friday.

The three were arrested four months after the homicide of Graham Stanley Burnell Bennett, 30, in the 100 block of Park Fairfax Drive. Bennett was found lying on his back in a parking lot of an apartment complex on Oct. 18, with gunshot wounds to his chest and back, a police affidavit said.

A friend of Bennett’s spoke to police at the scene and said Bennett called them and told them someone was trying to steal his keys, the affidavit said. He was identified by family at the scene.

The affidavit said witnesses told police they saw Bennett fighting another man. The man also fought a woman and yelled at her about having another man in their home, the affidavit said.

The man who was fighting Bennett briefly drove away in a white vehicle, the affidavit said. Police said in the affidavit that witnesses heard gunshots and saw a white vehicle drive away .

A woman was at the scene when police arrived, kneeling over Bennett’s body, with blood on her clothes before she walked away with keys into a wooded area, the affidavit said. The woman was later identified as Smith, the affidavit said.

Police identified Rose and Coleman with video footage from the apartment complex the night of the shooting, the affidavit said. Rose was seen yelling at someone out of the camera’s view. Coleman could be seen following behind Rose, the affidavit said.

Coleman was later identified as the driver of the white vehicle and accused of being the shooter, according to the affidavit.

Smith and Rose were arrested Tuesday, and Coleman was arrested Thursday.

Rose was being held on a $1 million bond and Coleman was not authorized bond, according to court records. Information about Smith’s bond was not immediately available Friday.