3rd person pleads guilty to murder in 2021 shooting death of man in Costco parking lot (2024)

The family of a man who was robbed and fatally shot loading groceries into his car returned to a Dallas County courtroom Tuesday morning to face the third person convicted of his killing.

Janiya Miller, 20, pleaded guilty to murder last month and was sentenced to 35 years in prison for her role in the death of Ali Elbanna. A group of then-teens approached 60-year-old Elbanna on Nov. 16, 2021, in the parking lot of a northeast Dallas Costco, demanded property and shot him, according to police.

“You are responsible for my father’s death,” Iman Elbanna, one of Ali Elbanna’s five children, told Miller in her victim impact statement. Poster-sized photos of her late father rested on easels in the 283rd district courtroom near downtown Dallas.

“You may not have pulled the trigger, but you played an active role in killing him,” Iman Elbanna said. “You drove the car to commit the crime, you and your friends shot him dead while he was getting groceries, and you drove off as if it was nothing — as if his life meant nothing — and now look at where you are.”

Miller, donning a green striped Dallas County jail uniform, rested her head on the counsel’s table. As she looked back at the courtroom gallery, her young face appeared puffy from crying and streaky tears ran down her cheeks. A bailiff handed her a wad of paper towels at the end of the hearing.

Two other people — the gunman, Camron Range, and James Levels — pleaded guilty to Elbanna’s murder. Range, who was 16 when he shot Elbanna and later charged as an adult, was sentenced to 60 years; Levels received a 40-year sentence. A fourth teen, Jacoby Bryce Tatum, was jailed on a capital murder charge, but a grand jury didn’t find sufficient evidence to indict him. He still faces aggravated robbery charges, according to court records.

Miller was also sentenced to two, 25-year sentences for other aggravated robberies, according to court records. The three sentences will run concurrently.

Miller’s attorney was not available for comment after the hearing, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning via text.

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney’s office declined to comment, citing pending cases.

The teens committed another robbery at gunpoint, stealing two cellphones before Ali Elbanna’s murder, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit. Those victims gave police a description of the robbers and their truck — three boys and a girl in a purple wig driving a newer model black Ford F-150 with oversized tires — and traced the phones to NorthPark Center.

An officer then found the truck and Miller, who had the phones, nearby, the affidavit says.

Ali Elbanna came from humble beginnings. He was born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees and began working his way out of poverty as a child, selling and buying merchandise on the streets, before achieving his dream of owning his own business: a small wholesale shop in Arlington. He lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for more than 30 years.

After roughly 20 minutes of testimony, state District Judge Lela Mays spoke privately with the Elbanna family outside the courtroom. The Elbanna children said at a hearing last month where they spoke to Range and Levels in court that they wanted life sentences for their father’s killers.