Trial underway for men in killing, burning of pregnant Melvindale woman

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A pregnant woman kidnapped and murdered, her body then set on fire.

On Friday the trial was underway for the two men accused of killing Melvindale woman Amanda Benton, found burnt and beaten to death at a vacant house in Detroit.

"I need to hear what they did," said Diane Benton, Amanda's sister. "I knew it but needed to hear it."

Jacob Barnes, 23, and his 16-year-old friend Jeremy Lee have been charged for her murder.  The court heard from one witness who said she heard the two suspects talking about what they did from her front porch.

"He told me everything that they did to Amanda Benton," the witness said. "They had carjacked her, beat her and took her to an abandoned place, beat her more and snapped her neck all the way around. Jeremy said he still saw her breathing and put her into a choke hold to put her to sleep and then they burned her.

"'Is your hear in your stomach are you nervous?' And he was like, 'No.'"

Amanda's family says hearing that was too much

"I had to walk about a couple times because it's painful knowing my sister isn't coming back and that they took her away from her four boys," said Diane Benton.

Each family member wearing T-shirts with Amanda's picture but were asked to turn those shirts inside out.

"They thought it was influential," she said. "Why? They killed my sister. they should have to look at her and see her every day."

The Benton family was also asked to leave the court before any family members of the suspect's family, possibly in an effort to avoid instances like the fight which broke out between two families during the initial arraignment of the suspects more than a month ago. 

After this day everyone seemingly went on their way peacefully.

After hearing two hours of testimony. FOX 2 was told that was just half of the witnesses in the case, which will resume at a later date."