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Death penalty sought in Bristol Township murder case

The Bucks County District Attorney's Office on Friday said it's seeking the death penalty in the case against Marcel Johnson, a man accused of killing a Bristol Township woman, her unborn child and her four-year-old last fall.

Johnson, 21, of Bristol Township, was formally arraigned in Bucks County on Friday, the deadline for prosecutors to purse capital punishment for the stabbing death of Ebony Talley, 22, who was five months pregnant, and her daughter, R'Mani Rankins, on the week of Thanksgiving.

"It was really not a tough decision [to seek the death penalty]," said Matt Weintraub, chief of prosecution for the DA's office. "There were so many aggravating factors that we had no choice but to seek it."

The aggravating factors in Johnson's case, which are required for the death penalty, include killing someone under the age of 12 and causing grave risk to others because Johnson set Talley's Levittown apartment ablaze after the killings, police said.