GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The mother of Mujey Dumbuya, the slain East Kentwood High freshman, wiped tears Friday, June 8, as she recalled the last time she saw her daughter.
Dumbuya,16, was leaving for the bus stop to go to school when she asked her mother for $1 to buy hot chocolate.
"When she left, she say, 'Bye mommy,'" Fatmata Corneh testified in Grand Rapids District Court.
She said she later got a call from school saying her daughter did not show up for classes Jan. 24. She looked for her daughter, and contacted friends. She filed a police report the next day.
Three days later, two Western Michigan University students found her body, on her side, in a wooded area in the 800 block of North Prairie Avenue in Kalamazoo, Timothy Knight, a Kalamazoo police detective, testified.
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He said it appeared that bleach was used on the victim's clothing. The girl's body was partially clothed, with only one shoe, when found.
Quinn James, 42, of Wyoming, and Gerald Bennett, 58, of Detroit, are charged in Dumbuya's killing.
James was awaiting trial for allegedly raping Dumbuya last summer when Dumbuya was killed.
Both men are in court for a hearing before District Judge Jennifer Faber to determine if they should stand trial in Kent County Circuit Court on murder charges.
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Before the hearing, Faber said she would not rule on a last-minute defense motion that James undergo a forensic evaluation to determine his competency to stand trial.
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If she had granted the motion, the hearing likely would have been delayed. She said that a circuit judge could rule on the motion if James is ordered to stand trial.
Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Kellee Koncki is expected to call at least 24 witnesses at the preliminary examination.
Defense attorney Jonathan Schildgen said the judge should have ordered a psychiatric evaluation for his client.
James is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, with kidnapping the underlying offense, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Bennett is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
James also awaits trial accused of sexually assaulting Dumbuya and a woman in 2014.
Corneh, the victim's mother, said she came to the Grand Rapids area 12 years ago from West Africa.
She said she had three children but now has only two.
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