Best friend of woman killed in Middle Avenue stabbing testifies

ELYRIA — The best friend of a woman killed in a May 2020 stabbing on Middle Avenue in Elyria testified Friday that a fight between the defendant and the alleged murder victim ended almost as quickly as it had begun. Aliyah West, 22, of Elyria, drove Isis Bennett to fight Eboni McElroy at McElroy's residence, 1810 Middle Ave., about 7:30 a.m. May 8, 2020, according to testimony this week in Lorain County Common Pleas Court. Bennett, 20, ended up on her back on McElroy's front porch, with a fatal wound to the neck from a replica movie prop knife belonging to McElroy's boyfriend. McElroy, 19 at the time of Bennett's death and now 20, is facing murder, felonious assault and evidence tampering charges in the case before Judge Raymond Ewers, and is represented by attorneys Christina Vagotis and Jason Harless. Assistant prosecutors Chris Pierre and Patrick Hakos are presenting the state's case against McElroy. Testimony this week revealed that Bennett and McElroy had gotten into an argument online over McElroy's boyfriend of two years: Estaban Gutierrez, who previously testified he was "flirting" with Bennett while in a relationship with McElroy. Bennett and Gutierrez, whom West testified were her best friends, had been texting each other back and forth for more than a day when McElroy found out, witnesses have testified. West said she didn't think the texts between the two were "flirty" and that Gutierrez seemed more interested in Bennett than Bennett was in him. She also testified she didn't think Gutierrez' invitation to Bennett to have lunch with him was necessarily flirtatious. "I knew he liked her. He told me," West testified. There already was tension between Bennett and McElroy from a short but "tense" meeting between the two women at McElroy and Gutierrez' Middle Avenue residence less than two days before. West testified she "could just sense" the tension between the women. West testified she "wouldn't use the word 'delighted'" to describe her feelings about Gutierrez and Bennett messaging each other. "I wanted somebody better for" Gutierrez, she testified. "I didn't feel like (McElroy) was a good girlfriend." Once McElroy learned early on the morning of May 8, 2020, that Gutierrez had been texting Bennett, McElroy posted a message on Facebook that turned into a war of words online between Bennett, McElroy, McElroy's cousin Tnariya Berry and at least one other person in the following hours. At 6:46 a.m. that day, McElroy texted West the following: "Your friend (Bennett) banned from Estabans house unless we throwin em next time." West testified she took that to mean McElroy was going to fight Bennett if she showed up at the Middle Avenue house. She also testified she didn't tell Bennett about McElroy's text. West did let Gutierrez know that McElroy that threatened to fight Bennett, writing: "Isis finnabeat her a**." Bennett asked West, the godmother of her three children, to drive her to McElroy's house so the women could fight in real life. West called McElroy on the phone to let her know she was there, and the two women knocked on the door but Gutierrez was at work and McElroy didn't immediately answer, West testified. West said she could hear someone rummaging around in the house and that McElroy finally invited the two women in. Bennett and McElroy "bum-rushed" each other in the living room and Bennett had McElroy by the hair, with her face pointing at the floor. Bennett may have said "B**** let's fight" and McElroy replied "Come in," West testified. West said the two combatants tussled and that she pushed McElroy when she saw Bennett's legs get weak, saw blood "spurting" and a curved-blade knife and more blood on the floor. West helped Bennett, who could not speak, out onto the porch and laid her down. She applied pressure to Bennett's neck wound, twice got up to try and find a phone to call 911 and waited until police and LifeCare paramedics arrived, she testified. Bennett was later pronounced dead at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center. Asked why she went to 1810 Middle Ave. that day, West testified that she went because Bennett wanted to fight McElroy. Why go?, Vagotis asked. "Because Isis was my friend," West replied. "I had no beef with Eboni, but Isis was my best friend ... my 'ride or die.'" Testimony resumes Tuesday. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.