A Connecticut man was sentenced Monday to 48 years in prison for fatally shooting an acquaintance on the street in 2017.
Jacob Freeman, 28, killed Jajuan Benavides on Aug. 11, 2017, in Derby. He was convicted of murder and faced 25 to 60 years in prison. Benavides was 21 years old when he was fatally shot.
“Essentially this was an assassination,” prosecutor Marc Durso said in court Monday. “No amount of time is enough to bring Jajuan back, but this is a life sentence his family has to live with, and I think the penalty should reflect the equivalent for Mr. Freeman.”
On the night of Aug. 10, Freeman and Benavides had met and eventually settled prior disagreements, according to authorities. But investigators said the deal was phony, and Freeman only agreed so Benavides would let his guard down. Around 1 a.m. Aug. 11, Freeman fatally shot Benavides as he stepped outside his residence near Anson St. and 5th St. in Derby.
“This didn’t happen in the blink of an eye. This was planned. You left the Anson Street area, you went somewhere else, you came back, and you executed him,” Judge Eliot Prescott said. “That’s calculated. That’s cold.”
Benavides’ murder went unsolved for years, until a jailhouse informant told authorities Freeman had admitted to the crime. Additionally, police said Freeman cut a music video in which he bragged about the killing.
The video referred to “A block” (Anson St.), “the 5th” (5th St.) and Freeman’s claim that he “lay on his crib all night,” which lined up with how investigators said Freeman waited for Benavides to leave his home.
Freeman maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, according to the Connecticut Post. His defense attorneys tried but failed to get him the minimum 25-year sentence.
