Miami jury votes for life, over death, for killer of ex and UM football player
A Miami jury on Thursday showed mercy to the man found guilty of bludgeoning to death his ex and the UM football player she was seeing, recommending that he spend the rest of his life in prison rather than on Florida’s Death Row.
Labrant Dennis was convicted in 1998 of killing Timwanika Lumpkins, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, and UM linebacker Marlin Barnes at his apartment on UM’s Coral Gables campus. He was on Florida’s Death Row from 1999 to 2017, until he was granted a new sentencing trial due to constitutional issues surrounding the state’s death penalty.
The 12-person Miami-Dade jury took about two hours to reach its verdict in the April 13, 1996, slayings. The courtroom was silent as the verdict was read. Family members of Barnes and Lumpkins were stoic while Dennis took off his glasses and appeared to wipe tears from his face.
Dennis, 53, hugged his attorneys as jurors walked out of the courtroom.
The case was handed off to the jury on Thursday morning, a day after prosecutors urged jurors to recommend Dennis be executed — and defense attorneys pleaded with jurors to spare the killer’s life.
Barnes’ loved ones broke down as they walked out of the courtroom. They thanked prosecutors but lamented the jury’s verdict.
Barnes’ mother Charlie Postell said she wasn’t pleased with the verdict, but said she “figured it was going to happen” due to the emotional testimony of Dennis’ daughter.
“I’m not getting my kid back anyway,” Postell said. “So I’m leaving it to the Lord.”
Barnes’ sister Charlisia Preston said she had to watch her mother struggle over the years as she dealt with the loss of her son due to Dennis’ killing spree.
“He ruined our life,” she said. “...He can escape man, but he can’t escape the judgment God has for him. He will suffer.”
READ MORE: Jurors hear 2 sides of man who beat to death his ex-girlfriend, UM football player
During closing arguments, prosecutor Joshua Weintraub summarized the testimony in the trial as photographs of the bloody crime scene were displayed on a screen. Weintraub frequently held the shotgun used in the killings as he spoke.
Dennis, prosecutors say, burst into Barnes’ apartment, catching him by surprise and beating his face with the butt of a shotgun to the point that his features were “obliterated.” He then continued his rampage, bashing the back of Lumpkins’ head.
Weintraub told the jury to put the killings into perspective: Dennis had “already decided what he was going to do” and meticulously plotted to murder Barnes and Lumpkins.
That’s why a month before the killings, Dennis asked a UM woman’s basketball player he was romantically involved with where Barnes lived. That’s why he borrowed the sawed-off, broken shotgun from an acquaintance. That’s why, on the night of the killings, he followed Barnes and Lumpkins to Salvation, a South Beach nightclub where a party was being held for the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins, and slashed the tires of the Ford Explorer that Barnes drove.
“This is a well-thought-out, planned, premeditated murder that began 30 days before,” the prosecutor said.
The murders, Weintraub said, stemmed from Dennis’ possessiveness, jealousy and rage. . Dennis would become irate when Lumpkins went out with men and stalked her, hit her and threatened her relatives on several occasions.
Dennis and Lumpkins had separated about a week before the murders. They had a 3-year-old daughter, Antonesha, at the time. Lumpkins had turned to Barnes for help; he was a high-school friend from North Miami High.
“With each block he that passes, with each light he passes, he has the option to turn back,” Weintraub said. “With every step he took..., he could have changed his mind, he could’ve turned around. He could have decided to not do what he had planned.”
The brutality of Barnes’ and Lumpkins’ final moments made the killings “absolutely inexcusable and definitely death-penalty worthy,” Weintraub said. The trigger guard and a hook on the shotgun completely damaged Barnes’ face — and chipped out his teeth.
Lumpkins, he added, was dragged out from under the bed, where she was hiding as Barnes was beaten to death. She had defensive wounds that indicated she attempted to shield herself from her scorned ex, who later pushed her down into the carpet and slammed the shotgun into the back of her head, breaking off part of her skull.
Before concluding, Weintraub asked jurors to “follow the law” to reach the “right answer” in the case.
“This man butchered Marlin Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins,” Weintraub said. “...This man is a killer, and he deserves to be on Death Row.”
Should Dennis be spared?
The circumstances of the killings are brutal, defense attorney Terence Lenamon acknowledged, but have to be weighed against Dennis’ troubled upbringing and his “outstanding conduct” during his decades of incarceration.
During the trial, several family members of Dennis took the stand, detailing his dysfunctional childhood — in the hopes of sparing him from the death penalty.
“These are not excuses folks,” Lenamon said. “The best-case scenario when you return a verdict is that my client is going to die in prison. He is never getting out.”
READ MORE: Killer facing death for UM linebacker murder came from dysfunctional family
Dennis was betrayed by his father, the attorney said, because he sexually abused Dennis throughout his childhood. Dennis’ father, convicted of several child sex crimes, has denied abusing Dennis.
Prosecutors cast doubt on the sexual abuse claims because they were never divulged in prior proceedings. Lenamon, however, said the jury should consider why Dennis’ father is in prison.
Dennis mother, who had him at 15, partied in clubs with her friends instead of caring for Dennis, Lenamon said. Dennis was bounced around from relative to relative growing up. He was reared in an environment polluted with drugs, gangs and violence but steered clear of trouble, he added.
“We know that Labrant is a resilient human being,” he said. “He was resilient from a very young age, and he’s resilient now.”
But the dysfunction Dennis was surrounded by, Lenamon said, fostered insecurity and left him unable to feel safe in a relationship. Dennis, the attorney added, snapped when Lumpkins left him.
“This is betrayal to him,” Lenamon said. “Mr. Barnes did nothing wrong. Ms. Lumpkins did nothing wrong. She had every right to leave him. But this is betrayal to him.”
Facing the jury, Lenamon said under Florida law, jurors were not required to vote for death. Only five jurors were needed to favor a life sentence for Dennis to avoid a return to Death Row. Since 2023, juries can recommend a death sentence with an 8-4 vote instead of unanimously.
“It’s important that you understand that you five are the only ones who can guarantee a vote of life for Labrant,” the attorney said.
At the time of the murders, Dennis was 23 and his brain wasn’t fully developed, Lenamon said.
“He is not the same person he was 30 years ago,” he said. “Am I going to vote for death for a man who is not the same person he was 30 years ago?”
Emotional testimony in trial
During the trial, loved ones of Lumpkins and Barnes testified about the decades of pain they’ve endured after the 22-year-olds’ murders.
Barnes’ mother Postell recounted how she and Barnes “grew up together” because she had Barnes at 16. She recalled how Barnes loved football early on. While at UM, he and his friends founded the Right Track program, which provided Miami school-aged children a safe place to hang out, receive tutoring and play sports to get away from drug dealers and gangs.
READ MORE: Mother of murdered UM football player recounts her pain in sorrowful detail
“...I suffered a pain that still, to this day, is indescribable,” Postell said. “My kid had a right to live a full and happy life.”
Lumpkins’ friend Keisha Carter, who considered her like a sister, said Lumpkins missed out on key milestones in her life — seeing her daughter graduate and becoming a grandmother.
“We were supposed to grow old together,” Carter said. “She was supposed to be my daughter’s godmother.”
Last week, Dennis’ half brother, Michael Dennis Jr. testified about how Dennis kept him grounded and encouraged him to avoid a life of crime. The pair were raised in Liberty City, where they grew up witnessing drug dealings, prostitution and drive-by shootings, Dennis Jr. said. They still speak at least once a week.
“He just tried to keep me out of trouble, out of the streets...” Michael Jr. testified.
Killer’s daughter takes the stand
On Tuesday, one of Dennis’ daughters — one of the last witnesses in the case — took the stand. Anastasia Dennis Dexter, 31, said Dennis has remained a constant presence in her life despite her father being behind bars for nearly three decades.
She was just 2 years old when her father was imprisoned and said her mother often took her to visit Dennis, who rubbed his eyes as his daughter took the stand.
Anastasia said her parents stayed together for some time after her father’s incarceration, but eventually ended their relationship because, as she recalled, Dennis told her mother not to “waste her life.”
Now a mother of three young children, she said she relies on her father for guidance. She said she leaned on him even more after her mother was murdered by her husband when Anastasia was 19.
“He’s a great father,” Anastasia said. “He’s always there.”
Miami Herald staff writer Milena Malaver contributed to this report
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM.
