Suspect Charged With Killing Teen Girl Who Was About to Testify Against Him for Rape

In November 2017, Quinn James was arrested on charges of rape after 16-year-old Mujey Dumbuya reported that she’d been raped multiple times by James from the time she was fifteen. He was released on bail, but was ordered to have no contact with Dumbuya until his scheduled hearing this month. Dumbuya went missing on January 24th. Four days later, her body was found in a wooded area. James, along with an accomplice, have now been charged with her murder.

According to the NBC news affiliate in Kalamazoo, MI, where Dumbuya lived, James is being charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder with the underlying offense of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and conspiracy. A second suspect, Gerald Bennett, has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and perjury. Kalamazoo police say that they have evidence, including phone records and a money transfer, linking Bennett to James, who they’re saying hired him to help him carry out the murder and dispose of the body.

Forensic tests have tied James to Dumbuya’s clothing, and there is video surveillance footage of James wiring money to Bennett’s girlfriend. Bennett is from the Detroit area, and the two men had never had contact before this murder took place. Police say that a friend of James’ connected him to Bennett.

This case makes it so clear how much further we have to go in not only fixing our broken justice system, but in curing rape culture and how we encourage rape victims to come forward by protecting them. When this teenage girl was brave enough to come forward against the adult man who raped her, how was she not protected? It’s hard enough for a grown woman to come forward. How could the state have left her so vulnerable?

We cannot underestimate just how much men value their lives above women’s lives, and the lengths to which many of them will go to prevent their lives “being ruined” by a rape charge.

Hopefully, this case won’t drive other young girls into silence.

(via Jezebel, image: screengrab)

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