Benjamin R. Brooks was arraigned Friday, becoming the second person indicted this week for murder by a Warren County grand jury.

Brooks was one of six people who had been accused in five slayings in the past five years.

The other four were not indicted.

Brooks, 31, 469 Union Ave., is accused of striking Derral Holmes, who was 25 and lived at 933 Bowmar Ave., in the head with a baseball bat near T & S Tunnel Express, a car wash at 3530 Pemberton Square Blvd., on Oct. 19.

The charge against him was upgraded from aggravated assault to murder after Holmes died Oct. 23.

Brooks is accused of striking Holmes at 10:56 a.m. as Holmes talked with someone else at the business. Authorities believe a dispute over a woman led to the assault, District Attorney Gil Martin has said.

Also indicted for murder this week was William Presley Brown, 32, 801 Clay St., Apt. 5-F. He is accused of killing Chenara Young, 43, 1303 Wood St., who authorities say was beaten to death, also with a baseball bat, sometime after she was last seen alive Oct. 13. Her body was found beside a trash receptacle at The Vicksburg Apartments, 801 Clay St., on Oct. 15.

Jurors no-billed, or declined to indict, three people charged in the May 8 shooting death of Kennado Caples, who was 26 and lived at 2708 Letitia St.

In Caples’ slaying, no-bills were returned in capital murder charges against Dwight Albert, 31, 60 Eastover Drive, Apt. J1, Larry Hamblin, 27, 718 Main St., and a charge of accessory to capital murder against Kathryn Blue, 27, 1107 Stadium Drive.

Also no-billed was a murder charge against Levi Bland, 37, 2618 Roosevelt Ave. Bland was accused in the Dec. 29, 2001, slayings of his mother and stepfather, Annie and Egnation Davenport, who were both 52 and shared a home with Bland. Bland had been in county custody since the day after the slayings and had since been found incompetent to stand trial.

Indictments are returned when at least 12 of 18 to 21 grand jurors vote that enough evidence exists for a case to proceed to trial.

The grand jury considered 87 cases and voted to return indictments in 81, against 91 defendants, the report it delivered Thursday to Judge Isadore Patrick says.

The panel was the second of four scheduled to be convened this year in the county. The others are to meet beginning July 24 and Oct. 30.

Others who were arraigned Friday on indictments returned this week, with charges against them, were: