A 23-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a woman whose body was found tied up last week behind a Commerce City trash bin.
Prosecutors say Deshawn Anthony Benain killed 21-year-old Sydney Lynn Lewis after the two got into an argument. Her body was found Jan. 23 behind a Dumpster on the 5000 block of East 56th Avenue, near the intersection of Interstate 270 and Vasquez Boulevard.
17th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young announced Monday that Deshawn Anthony Benain has been charged with one…
— Colorado's 17th Judicial DA's Office-Brian Mason (@da17colorado)
“I dumped her body behind a trash Dumpster,” Benain allegedly told investigators, according to an arrest warrant.
The warrant says Benain told police he picked up Lewis at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Colfax Avenue two nights before her body was found, driving them to his brother’s house where they spent the night.
Benain said he got into an argument with Lewis the following morning when he told her to leave, according to the warrant. He told detectives she came at him with a knife before a struggle ensued.
“I then pushed her really hard on her chest and she fell into the brick wall and fell down,” Benain said to police, according to the warrant. “She struck the wall with the right side of her face. … I panicked.”
Benain said, per the warrant, he then put Lewis body’ in the backseat of a car and drove around for more than an hour before leaving her behind the Dumpster outside a business. Employees there told police they initially though Lewis was a homeless person who had fallen asleep before they realized she was dead.
Benain told investigators that it was “self defense,” the warrant shows.
The warrant says Benain and Lewis were friends and that a weapon was not used in the killing. Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show Benain was arrested on Jan. 24.
The Adams County District Attorney’s Office says Benain was advised of the allegations against him on Monday morning. He is due back in court March 2 for a preliminary hearing.
