Derby PD Photo
Rhameir Bush
MILFORD – The getaway driver in a 2017 Derby shooting pled guilty on Jan. 9 to being an accessory to murder.
Rhameir Bush, 29, of Ansonia, also pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, he faces 20 years in prison, to be suspended after 14 years served, plus five years of probation. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 7.
In August 2017, Bush drove Jacob Freeman to Anson Street in Derby, where Freeman gunned down 21-year-old Jajuan Benavides.
Freeman is serving a 48-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of the murder in 2024.
Bush entered his plea in Superior Court in Milford under the Alford doctrine. That means he disputes some of the facts in the case, but that he acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict him.
Judge Kevin S. Russo told Bush that he will receive some credit during his sentencing. Bush is currently serving an eight-year sentence at Hartford Correctional Center on various charges out of Bridgeport, New Britain and Waterbury. He began that last sentence last September, according to a state inmate database.
According to prosecutors and police, on the night of Aug. 10, 2017, Freeman and Benavides had gotten into an argument in the Anson Street area at about 11:30 p.m., then parted ways.
At around 1:22 a.m. on Aug. 11, Freeman returned in a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Bush. Freeman chased Benavides down Anson Street and shot him several times. Benavides collapsed near the Cicia Manor apartments.
Bush and Freeman then fled the scene. Through cell phone location data, Bush was placed at or near Freeman’s home in Ansonia about an hour after the murder.
Benavides was survived by two children. Click here for an obituary.
During the early part of the investigation, several eyewitnesses would not talk to police. Bush was arrested on Oct. 19, 2020. Freeman was arrested two days later.
