Bereaved and angry family members filled Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Catherine Chen’s courtroom on Jan. 29, delivering emotional impact statements at the sentencing of Baltimore man Aamir Benton, 25.
Benton is now set to serve 45 years behind bars for the murders of 23-year-old Eligah Hooks and 31-year-old Phillip Wallace, which occurred in two separate shootings over three years ago.
Judge Chen ruled in favor of the prosecution’s request for a sentence of life, suspending all but 45 years. Upon release, the double-murder convict will be required to serve five years of supervised probation, abstain from drugs and alcohol or drugs, and maintain no contact with his victims and their families.
In September 2024, Benton’s co-defendant, James Jenkins III, accused the former of fatally shooting Wallace in the parking lot of Pimlico Elementary School. Jenkins, who was 18 years old at the time of Wallace’s death and,20, during his trial, was acquitted on Sept. 18, 2024.
Previous reporting notes that a week prior to Wallace’s death on June 30, 2022, Benton had just been released from jail and intended to shoot Wallace, who was Benton’s mother’s boyfriend at the time and had been accused of “beating on her.”
The prosecution reiterated that recovered surveillance footage showed Benton and Wallace entering a 2008 Acura RDX and driving to Pimlico Elementary School together. Wallace drove with Benton in the passenger’s seat. While in the car, Benton shot Wallace and fled. Responding officers pronounced Wallace deceased at the scene.
Less than four months after Wallace’s death, on Sept. 28, 2022, Benton shot Hooks in the head and another woman in the arm while on the 700 block of S. Broadway. Though the woman survived, Hooks was left in critical condition and died eight days later.
At her attacker’s sentencing, the surviving victim of the September shooting recounted the night of the incident, telling the court Benton approached her at around 1 a.m. A conversation between the two escalated into an argument that resulted in Benton shooting her in the arm, she said. The injury left bullet fragments in her arm that still cause chronic pain, and she described no longer being able to participate in basic daily activities or work physically demanding jobs.
Hooks’ mother called Benton a “murderer” and expressed grief toward the loss of her son, who was a father of three.
“As a single mother [with] no Section 8 [subsidized housing] or welfare, I played my part,” she told Benton. “I believe when they say you can die of a broken heart.”
Wallace’s mother gave an impact statement of her own, noting the victim had been her only son.
“This was a violent and intentional taking of my child,” said Wallace’s mother. “You murdered two people in three months.”
Wallace’s sisters urged the defendant to seek help and disparaged him for committing “countless” murders.
“It’s crazy,” said one as Benton stared at her from across the courtroom. “I don’t think of you. You really should not look me in the eyes.”
Defense attorney Staci Pipkin expressed hope that the resolution of Benton’s cases would bring closure to the grieving families. Benton, meanwhile, claimed he had already taken accountability for the killings and apologized to the victims’ families.
“I know who I am – a man is supposed to hold eye contact,” he said.
