5 chilling Details About Marlin Barnes's Murder

The Real CSI: Miami on CBS, season 1, episode 4 will throw light on the assassination of Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins by Labrant Dennis in April 1996.

Episode four will premiere on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, at 10 PM ET.

The fourth episode is titled Death of a Hurricane. The official synopsis of the episode as per Rotten Tomatoes reads as—

"Linebacker Marlin Barnes and his girlfriend are found murdered in his apartment; with no witnesses, investigators delve into Miami's hip-hop scene to unravel the mystery behind their deaths."

Before you see the episode, here are five chilling details about Marlin Barnes's murder.

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5 Chilling Details About Marlin Barnes’s Murder

1) Blood was splattered on the ceiling and the walls

Marlin Barnes and his girlfriend were killed brutally by Labrant Dennis in April 1999. After Earl Little, Marlin's friend, discovered their dead bodies while he was entering the room to check on Marlin, he found him badly beaten. As soon as she discovered the crime scene that left him scarred, he called for help. Once the officials arrived and entered the scene, they saw blood on the ceiling and on the walls.

Flora Seff, an assistant state attorney, later talked about the crime scene and said—

'The blood had spattered up to the ceiling, to the walls."

This description is enough to understand how gory and gruesome the murder was and how Dennis did not show them any mercy.

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2) Hammered down with a shotgun

Barnes and his girlfriend were beaten to death with a shotgun (Image by Scott Szarapka/Unsplash)

Marlin Barnes and his girlfriend Timwanika Lumpkins were brutally murdered by Dennis, who beat them with a shotgun while they begged for their lives. Marlin was killed instantly, while Lumpkins was discovered by Marlin's friend Earl Little and died on her way to the hospital.

Earl talked about the horrific scene to Labrant Dennis and said—

"When I went upstairs and saw my best friend the way you left them, I wouldn’t want anyone to see what I saw."

From the above lines, it is once again evident how gory and gruesome their death was.

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3) Dennis showed no mercy

Labrant Dennis brutally murdered Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, leaving them to die in agony. Driven by jealousy and a bruised ego over Lumpkins leaving him, Dennis showed no mercy, despite their past relationship and shared daughter. This tragic incident illustrates how anger and jealousy can consume a person, leading to heinous acts.

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4) Slashed the car tyres

The car tyres were slashed (Image by Jaye Haych/Unsplash)

The night the incident took place, the car tires of the Ford Explorer, which Marlin Barnes had borrowed from his best friend/roommate Earl Little were slashed. Barnes had to tow the car back. So, did Labrant Dennis want to kill the two before they could come back home?

Or did he want this crime to look like an accident, by slashing car tires, thinking Barnes would not release the tires to be slashed and drive the car back home? Was that the plan all along to take Barnes down, which failed, because of which he had to resort to a shotgun barrel to kill the two? Only Dennis can answer these questions now.

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5) Dennis's death sentence was horrific

When Dennis was sentenced in 1999, he did not admit to the crimes but the jury declared him guilty of the murders. He did not have anyone who could vouch for him as an alibi. to save him. The judge sentenced him to die in an electric chair. Marlin Barnes's mother also agreed to this horrific sentence as she wanted Dennis to die a lethal death. With regards to the sentence, she even said that his death should be 22 times as horrific as Barne's was.

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To know more about this case, watch The Real CSI: Miami on CBS season 1 episode 4.