2 suspects in Dallas Costco murder take plea deals

DALLAS - A teenager will spend 60 years in prison for being part of a group that killed a man during a robbery in a Dallas Costco parking lot two years ago.

Ali Elbanna was fatally shot during an attempted armed robbery outside the Northeast Dallas store in November 2021.

Family members said the 60-year-old was at the Costco Business Center Warehouse off Park Lane to pick up supplies for his store in Arlington. As he was loading the groceries into his SUV, a group of suspects in a stolen truck tried to rob him.

Ali’s loved ones were at the Frank Crowley Courts Building Monday morning as 18-year-old Camron Range pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

Range was 16 at the time of the shooting, but a judge ruled that he should be tried as an adult.

On Friday, 20-year-old James Levels also pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault. He was given a 40-year sentence.

Happy images of Ali filled Judge Lela Lawrence Mays' court Monday as his family shared the impact of his November 2021 murder. 

Ali and his brother, Khalil Elbanna, immigrated from Lebanon 40 years ago.

"These guys sitting here, it's like nothing. They’re looking at me like I'm a nobody," Khalil said. "You killed my brother, and you don't show no remorse."

Four people approached Ali as he put items in his vehicle at Costco on Park Lane on Nov. 16, 2021. He was robbed and then shot and killed by Range. He agreed in a plea bargain on Monday.

Range was sentenced to 60 years for Ali’s murder and 30 years for the robbery. Both sentences will run at the same time.

Levels was brought in to court to hear the victim impact statements. He also accepted a plea bargain of 40 years.

Through Sayed Elbanna’s shaking voice, we learned how his father gave others who committed their own crimes a helping hand.

"He gave them another chance. Nobody would hire them because they were felons," Ali’s son said. "He gave them a car. He gave them rent money. He gave them everything. He literally gave them everything they could have in life. He gave them another chance. Nobody would hire them because they were felons."

A sorrow-filled silence seemingly shrouded the courtroom as Ali’s daughter, Stephanie Elbanna, wanted the men who killed her father to hear what she heard that November night two and a half years ago.

"The knock at the door after midnight. Four police officers with solemn faces. They were asking for my sister. ‘It's regarding your father,’ they said. I remember the sound of my mother pleading to God, ‘Not my husband! Please God, not my husband!’" Stephanie recalled. "I remember the sound of my brother’s scream. I remember the sound of my sisters’ cries through the phone. I remember the sounds of my uncles as their grief ripped open one by one. I remember that day and every day after as I hold my phone in my hand and wait for the call that will never come."

A third suspect, Janiya Miller, is also charged with capital murder, aggravated robbery, evading in a motor vehicle, and the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. 

The fourth suspect, Jacoby Tatum, is only charged with aggravated robbery. 

Their cases have not yet gone to trial.