Livonia— A 46-year-old Livonia man was charged Monday in the shooting death of his ex-wife Sunday.
According to police, Benjamin Yee fired several shots at his ex-wife, Courtney Lynn Johnson, 35, striking and killing the Westland woman as she sat in her car after pulling into the driveway of Yee's home in the 9400 block of Gillman around 2:52 p.m. Sunday.
Yee was arraigned Monday in front of 16th District Court Judge Kathleen J. McCann and remanded to jail. His preliminary examination is 9 a.m. Dec. 13.
"He came out of the house when she pulled up and that was it ... three shots," said Jason Wieske, a new neighbor of Yee's who was moving in a home on the block Sunday and witnessed the shooting.
The couple's 11-year-old child also witnessed the incident.
"The daughter came out after him trying to stop him," said Wieske. "The daughter was screaming like crazy trying to stop it. But it had already happened."
Yee was arrested at the scene, and a 9 mm handgun was recovered at the scene.
"The alleged facts in this case are tragic on so many levels:an 11-year-old child losing her mother at the hands of her surviving parent … an all-too-familiar end when a family is in distress," said Prosecutor Kym Worthy in a press release Monday.
Yee has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder, which would put him behind bars for life if he is convicted.
He is also charged with felonious assault and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The block where Yee lives is quiet, residents said. It is lined with mostly modest brick bungalows.
2 comments:
Well he managed to not have to go to jail as he died today. He had been telling her for years he would kill her. He decided to manipulate her again by saying he would regret his daughter not liking him before he passed on. Courtney was taking the little girl over to see him so he could mend fences with his eleven year old beautiful daughter.Instead he walked out of the house and killed her mom in front of the child. He knew he'd never live long enough to have to do prison time. He decided to take away any chance of happiness these two beautiful ladies would have been able to have once he had passed and stopped making their lives a living hell. I hope all the judges that listened to his crap over the years finally see they were dealing with a sociopath of the first order. He had been claiming disability all these years and kept his ex wife as a slave to all his demands or he would threaten to take them to court. She was so tired of fighting with him (he would call her all the time at home and at work and belittle her-even though she left him she couldn't escape his insanity especially since the courts insisted on giving him partial custody and disability). She just did the best she could on her own. She never bad mouthed him to her daughter and she tried to make the best of a sad situation. He took full advantage of it and no one would intervene, not even his new wife who had to see he was in fact a lunatic. This marriage was arranged when she was 19 and he was 30. She managed to get away from him once she had a daughter and saw how badly it was beginning to effect her. She put up with all kinds of verbal abuse before that, he only got worse as years went on. He told her time and time again he would kill her one day. He did. We tried to be there for her(her friends just to listen). She really had no one that would step in to be her advocate. She was really one of the sweetest women I have ever met. Just truly good inside and out. Courtney was an Angel here on earth.
Their marriage was NOT arranged. I remember the night Courtney met him at (the now closed) Don Pablo's through mutual friends. It wasn't a blind date and it certainly wasn't arranged. Her family didn't ENCOURAGE the relationship. Please do not rub salt in our wounds by implying that anyone close to her arranged her marriage. We ALL wish she would have married someone else or left before she had a baby with him, but we can't change that now. SOOO many people tried to intervene but the problem is the law, not people unwilling to help. Unfortunately, the laws remain the same and this is going to happen to who knows how many women this year. I appreciate your description of their relationship - it is spot on. There aren't even words to describe him. Yes, Courtney was a very sweet, patient and kind person. As an update - her daughter (note that is HER daughter!!!!) has some issues but is doing MUCH better than any of us expected that she would be doing at this point. Courtney's email addresses are still monitored by her daughter so if any of her Courtney's friends have those addresses and would like to send her daughter a message, you are welcome to do so.
Post a Comment