Teens Accused of Murder After Allegedly Luring Man with Sexting App

Twitter/@KPRC2
Twitter/@KPRC2

Two teenagers were arrested Thursday and charged with murder after they allegedly lured a man with a sexting app, then beat him to death and set him on fire.

Police charged Courtney Burks and Shaquan Bennett, both 18, with capital murder, KHOU reported.

Police said the victim, David Standley, thought he was meeting up with a woman to have sex but instead, encountered the two 18-year-olds who beat and stabbed him to death.

Officials found Standley’s body behind an abandoned home in east Houston. It was badly beaten, stabbed, and burned.

Bennett used Burks to lure men to his apartment with a sexting app, according to court documents.

A witness told police that Standley was seen negotiating a price for sex with a woman, who asked him to bring chicken wings, KPRC reported.

Once Standley arrived with the chicken wings, Bennett came out of the bathroom, where he waited for the victim’s arrival and allegedly beat him with a bed rail while Burks stabbed him with a meat fork, police said.

Prosecutors said that Bennett and Burks wrapped Standley’s body in a car cover and sealed it shut with duct tape after they beat and stabbed him.

“Once the victim passed away, the defendants used a car cover from the victim’s vehicle to wrap up his body and duct tape it to keep it closed. They dragged the body down the stairs, through a fence, emptied the contents of a large bottle of lighter fluid onto the body and set the complainant on fire,” read a prosecutor in court on Friday.

Prosecutors say investigators tracked down the alleged suspects using the victim’s phone records.

Burks and Bennett are both being held without bond at the Harris County Jail.

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