Thomas Barnes, a 19-year-old Black/African American male from Chester, Pennsylvania, lost his life to gun violence on February 6, 1993. The surviving online memorial record identifies him as a gun violence victim in Chester, while a linked newspaper clipping shows that his killing was part of a broader Chester shooting case that also left another man, Eric Wilson, wounded.
The case that emerged after Barnes’ death involved a group of young men accused of taking part in the violence.
According to the newspaper account, Dramil Beckett was described as an accomplice in the Chester killing. Beckett had cooperated with police and helped them crack the case, but his own legal fight later centered on the sentence he received after pleading guilty to third-degree murder. He had been given a seven-to-22-year prison sentence, and he went back before the court arguing that he believed his cooperation would lead to a much lighter term of three to six years.
The article reported that Judge Charles C. Keeler vacated Beckett’s sentence and requested transcripts from prior proceedings to determine whether the record supported Beckett’s claim. Beckett’s attorney, Edward Weiss, testified that he had never promised Beckett a specific sentence, though he said Beckett may have misunderstood the likely outcome. Weiss said he believed, based on Beckett’s cooperation and the fact that his sentence in another unrelated shooting case would run concurrently, that Beckett would not receive more than three or four years. Prosecutors disputed the idea that any binding deal for such a low sentence had been made.
Two other defendants, Fard Potts and Jamir Benten, both 18 and both from Chester, entered guilty pleas to third-degree murder for their roles in Barnes’ killing and in the wounding of Eric Wilson, who was 26 and described as legally blind. Their pleas tied them directly to the street shootings that the article said occurred around February 5, with Barnes’ death recorded the following day.
Another defendant, Jason Smith, 17, of the 1300 block of West 9th Street in Chester, was identified as the accused triggerman in Barnes’ death. At the time of the article, Smith was scheduled to go to trial the following week, and prosecutors indicated that he might also plead guilty. The account described Beckett as telling authorities that he had driven the car for four other assailants who had gone out that night to “rob some punks.”
The same report also named Bryan “Braheim” Terry as a fifth defendant. Terry was described as a fugitive and was being sought as the person accused of firing the bullet that blinded Eric Wilson. The available online material does not show a final outcome for Terry, Smith, Potts, Benten, or Beckett beyond the pleas, sentencing dispute, and pending proceedings described in the newspaper clipping.
