Photo Courtesy of Atlanta Black Star (Police mugshots)
A 1996 California cold case was just solved after a white woman was arrested and charged with the murder of her boyfriend, who she said was killed by a Black man.
Twenty-six years later, new forensic evidence proves Jade Benning, now 48, stabbed her boyfriend to death.
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In 2020, the Santa Ana Police Department received an anonymous letter that implicated Benning was involved in the homicide.
According to a press release from police, Homicide Cold Case Detective Gibbons examined and conducted follow-up on the case, ultimately garnering enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant for Benning.
She was extradited from her Austin, Texas, home to face her charges in California on May 3 and was subsequently arrested. She is being held on a $1 million bail.
“Today, at approximately 2:20 pm (local time), agents from the U.S. Marshalls Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested BENNING near her residence in Austin, Texas. Santa Ana Police Detectives were present for the arrest, and BENNING will undergo the extradition process to answer to the murder allegations,” the police said.
On Jan. 4, 1996, a Jade Benning called 911 saying her 22-year-old boyfriend Christopher Hervey had been attacked by a Black intruder in their California apartment.
Benning told police a Black man entered the apartment around 3 a.m. while they slept. Benning said the couple fought with the man before he stabbed Hervey and fled the apartment.
Hervey was stabbed several times in the torso and died in the hospital.
Neighbors said they heard a loud argument inside the apartment, but Investigators declared the incident an unsolved homicide case.
In 2001, Benning moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and later relocated to Texas.