Former BYU player arrested for murder
Former BYU player arrested for murder charge in Dallas
A former BYU football player who was charged in connection with a rape case in 2004 has been arrested on a murder charge in Dallas.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Karland Bennett, 25, and another man, Robert Dale Knox, 22, are suspected in the abduction, robbery and shooting of 27-year-old Louis Adam Barajas. Witnesses reported seeing Bennett, Knox and another man force the shooting victim into a car. When he was found, the man had been shot multiple times. He died at a hospital, the newspaper reported.
Bennett was one of four former BYU football players charged in an August 2004 incident after a Salt Lake County girl told police she'd been raped by several men in a Provo apartment. The incident occurred at an off-campus party the night before the start of that year's preseason football camp. All four were suspended and later withdrew from the school.
Bennett pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and dealing harmful material to a minor in the case, and agreed to testify against two of the men. After those men were acquitted by a jury, and before Bennett could be sentenced, a judge allowed him to withdraw his guilty plea. The Utah County Attorney's Office dropped the charges against Bennett in 2006, partly because the victim in the case didn't want to go through another trial.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Bennett, as well as Knox, have faced criminal charges in the past in the Dallas area. When the charges against him in Utah were dropped, Bennett's attorney said Bennett wanted to play football for another university.
