For his work, the man who once stood to gain millions received no compensation, prison officials said. He had retained Naples attorney Michael McDonnell. Instead, he died in prison, leaving behind just $30.06 in his commissary fund. In addition to the fatal wound to the head, Associate Medical Examiner Anthony Clark noted a puncture wound to the left scalp and multiple bruises on Benson's torso, upper and lower extremities. It was just a tragic story. Scott Benson, who was originally thought to be Steven Benson's brother but was revealed during the trial to be his nephew, was killed at the age of 21 on July 9, 1985, in front of his Naples, Fla., home by the car bomb that also took the life of his grandmother, Margaret Benson, who was 63 at the time, and injured his mother, Carol Lynn Kendall. and never miss an insightful take by the TFIGlobal team, This website uses cookies. Its been decades since his trial attracted attention, though TV specials still pop up on cable channels from time to time. ", The jowly and bespectacled witness testified that Steven's company books were a mess, with checkbook entries missing and no balance carried forward. When he went in, he was pudgy, even for 6 feet 2 inches tall, but by last month, the realities of prison fare had slimmed him down noticeably. View our. Collier County's most notorious killer himself met with a violent end. Also in the car were her two children, 21-year-old Scott, who died, and 41-year-old Carol Lynn, who was badly injured but survived. That day, she and Wayne Kerr drove to Fort Myers, and when she saw Steven's new house, and the new Datsun sports car parked in front, she was, as Kerr testified, "angry. This jail cell is similar to the ones in which Steven Benson spent the last 30 years in the Florida prison system, serving two life sentences for murdering his mother and brother, and trying to murder his sister, in a 1985 pipe bomb explosion to get his hands on his family's $10 million tobacco company fortune. Inmates told investigators that Washington planned to extort $1,000 from Benson within days after arriving at Taylor Correctional Institution. The siblings did not return phone messages Friday. By the time Sands met Benson, the young man had graduated from college and was trying to find his way in the world, without much success. "Malevolent" is what the prosecutors for the state call 35-year-old Steven Benson. And so he appears very much alone. Theres no record of him having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison, a Department of Corrections spokesman said. Minutes later the Suburban erupted into flames. Moments later, a second bomb, this one planted in the rear of the vehicle, exploded. Just follow the money, and you could see what he was doing.. Thats the way Steve was.. She thought he had been embezzling family funds and had called her attorney to check into it. It was her sister, Margaret, 63, and her nephew, Scott, 21, who had died in a horrific car explosion in Florida. McDonnell did succeed in keeping the jury from hearing the testimony of the groundskeeper who had said he had seen Steven playing with a remote-control bomb device in Pennsylvania, but he was not able to stop a former employe from telling the jury that at the wake, Steven mentioned to a small group that he had "made bombs as a kid.". Dwight Brock was an assistant state attorney in Florida, specializing in white collar crime, when Steven Benson was arrested. People are interested in that, and the way it was done every day, people dont blow up their mother and brother and sister in a prominent part of Naples., Young described Benson as calm, calculated, coldblooded., He thought he could get away with it, Young said. Also Read:Mariannette Miller-Meeks : Role during Iowa elections. He was going to turn it into an apartment house. A maid testified that he was "the apple of his mother's eye." Brocks brother, Jerry, the lead prosecutor in the case, asked him to help with the financial issues in the case as it was going to trial. I guess he didnt want him to go to hell.. His deposition in that case reads like pulp fiction of old: "My mother (meaning Margaret Benson) who had 38 years of marriage to my father, a greatly respected man of the highest character both in business and his personal life, is herself a religious person of high integrity and moral values. But there were other debits. Reached Friday about her brothers death, she said, I really have no comment.. Many members of the family have disappeared from public view in the past 20 years. As the trial date neared (there were several postponements before it finally began July 14) it became obvious that the large amounts of money involved meant that there would be a lot of lawyers on both sides of the courtroom trial. She, of course, was referring to Margaret. He thought he was better than everybody else.. File photo. But what is apparently harder is that she has to face the death of Scott Benson, who died at the age of 21 without ever knowing that the woman he thought was his much older sister, by adoption, was in fact his own natural mother. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Disbarred . She was afraid her brother would come after her and her children if he ever got free. Benson was 33, just five years younger than Bennett at the time. Harry Hitchcock, second from right, patriarch of the Benson family and founder of the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co., with his daughter Janet Murphy in a hallway of the Florida courthouse during the trial their family member, Steven Benson. Her daughter, Kendall, was. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Carol Lynn. He cried so much, she says. Steven Benson blew up his family in the driveway of their Florida home in July 1985. Young said they talked about Mothers Day, and how sad it would be to not have his mother around on that day. At first, Murphy thought her niece, Carol Lynn Kendall, 40, also had died, but she found out that she was badly burned but had survived. You could see a hateful heart in Steven then. -- Scott Benson's natural mother and Margaret Benson's daughter -- got along better with her mother. TV show Monday features Benson family murders, one of Naples' notorious crimes, Lighthouse Project - History: Murderers, moonshiners, swindlers lead rogues gallery of SW Florida crooks, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Distraught over the bombing and what she says is her brother's complete lack of interest in her physical and emotional condition since then (she testified he has never contacted her in all that time, not even to inquire about her health), she is occupied with trying to hold herself together emotionally. I heard a lot of cursing and swearing.. Police later learned that Scott. He was born in 1951 in Baltimore. After his initial outburst, Benson became stoic and unemotional as the evidence was presented against him. If Steven Benson caused problems, then Scott caused traumas. Investigators also found on Bensons pants a single particle of zinc, which they said fell off the pipe while he was making the bombs. The Miami Herald gave the following account of a groundskeeper who worked on Margaret Benson's Pennsylvania estate: He recalled that one day in 1982 he looked down from his ladder to see Steven carrying three copper tubes with wires protruding from them. She hardly looked at her brother, but when she testified about Scott Benson, she called him "my son. Bennett heard about the money battles that were going in within the family, how Margaret Benson used money to control her children, how they fought among themselves and with her to gain access to the fortune, how Margaret Benson asked a secretary to inform and spy on Steven. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 court order. Prosecutors argued that Steven had engineered the whole idea of the early-morning trip to view the huge -- 17,000-square-foot -- residence his mother was building nearby in the same exclusive subdivision. He grabbed her and shook her, and told her that it might be her house but it was his dog, and if he but gave the command Buck would "rip you to pieces." He said Mrs. Kendall, who was recovering from severe burns at her home in the Chestnut Hill section of Boston, recently told her teen-age sons about Scotts parentage, but never told Scott. (Admitted to practice: 2002) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $1,075 to one client. Also Read : . The explosion was so loud that golfers ran off the course to see what had happened. Prosecutors argued that Margaret Benson was apparently beginning to face the growing evidence that Steven was spending beyond the limits of her frequent loans and the $3,000 a month she paid him as a "consultant" to the Meridian businesses. ), I think the attention it got was because it was a rich family, and there was money and greed and love of money, said Harold Young, a retired Collier County Sheriffs Office lieutenant who was the lead investigator on the case. The matricide was a huge point, she said. But in reality she had been alone with her thoughts -- the memory of that "malevolent orange thing," and her recollection of the day she took the stand and referred, for the first time in public, and in front of all those strangers, to the late Scott Benson as "my son.". Benson wasnt much more popular in the penitentiary: At one point, he was stabbed by another prisoner and had to be transferred to a different facility for his own safety. Bensons grandfather, the family patriarch and the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco magnate, the late Harry Hitchcock, was a congenial-looking, white-haired Christian businessman known for his tulip gardens in School Lane Hills. The problems, Sands says, were all Benson wanted to talk about during the visits. Even though her grandfather and her aunt opposed Steven's release on bail, she apparently still fights the conclusion that Steven did it. Oh no, she thought. It was the O.J. Then you had Scott as an aspiring tennis player, but ordering nitrous oxide to be delivered to the house like some people get milk, he said, so he could carry on with his girlfriend, who was a stripper.. Lets go with disastrous hate. Steven was paid $244,974.39 so he could pay his legal fees. Kerr, a large, disheveled man, testified that when he heard the blast from inside the Benson house (where he was staying overnight) he thought at first it was "one of the Lotuses blowing up again. He worked in the laundry. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Obituary - Death, Cause Of Death, Funeral: Friends and others affected mourn the death of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, has suddenly passed away.click to read and leave tributes. Young, the investigator, said hes seen more horrendous cases than the Benson case, ones where people killed their children by drowning them in their mothers blood. Margaret Benson adopted her grandson as her son, to cover up the fact that her daughter, a former beauty queen, became pregnant with a water skier from Cypress Gardens, said Cirace, now 64. ", As for the positioning of the vehicle's occupants, "I thought it was awfully strange that Scott was driving. Hes had no contact at all.. As the lead investigator in the Collier County Sheriffs Department, Harold Young was one of the first people to answer the call about a bombing at Margaret Bensons home in a gated golf course community on the morning of July 9, 1985. The judge did another unusual thing. My memorys getting pretty hazy. Steven Benson was taken into police custody on August 22, 1985, after being accused of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9 of the same year. Steven Benson, convicted in 1986 of murdering his mother and adopted brother, died in July at Taylor Correctional Institution in northern Florida. He turned to the television cameras and delivered a stern warning to the "youth of Southwest florida" about the dangers of laughing gas. I saw you on TV. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. You know, he wouldnt say yes or no or nothing. By the time the trial began, Steven Benson had been in jail for almost 11 months. The case still resonates three decades later. But Kendall, who was injured. Mail Address: Law Offices of Carol Lynn B Kendall, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd Ste 164 Hollywood, FL 33020-4821. Cirace said the rumors were never confirmed until Steven Bensons lawyers questioned Mrs. Kendall about it, to test her credibility. But by late 1984 and early 1985, they argue, she was coming to the conclusion that bankrolling Steven was something less than sound. Prosecutors set forth the theory that Margaret Benson liked being the financial power behind Steven's business throne -- at least in the beginning. In the Know: Is that Benson guy still in prison? ), After a brief rebuttal by the prosecution, Judge Hayes let the jury go. Steven Benson denied all requests for media interviews. And Steven usually drove when we were together. Hitchcock died in 1990, five years after the Florida killings. The jury was left with one noticeable absence from the list of witnesses. Margaret's son, Steven Benson, was convicted of placing two pipe bombs inside the family's Suburban, which killed his mother and brother, and seriously injured his sister, Carol Benson Kendall. Carol Lynn Kendall unsuccessfully ran for a Naples City Council seat while living in Port . While she was being helped by the golfer, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall's brother Steven stood and watched the carnage. But that changed over the next three weeks, as witness after witness took the stand. The feud went back to at least 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington. It r Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, a former Naples City Council candidate, is now a lawyer in Broward County focusing on family law and real estate. Nervously at first, but then more calmly, she testified in response to the prosecutor's questions. She suffered first-degree burns on her face and hands in the explosion and is still undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery. Moments later there was a loud explosion. I walk into a restaurant and people say, Didnt you do the Benson case? But a witness for the defense, Steven's secretary, testifed Steven never left the office during the times when the pipe and end caps were purchased. Naples Daily News", "Car Bomb Victim Was Son, Not Brother, Heiress Says", "`Heated Discussions` By Slain Heiress Told", "Benson Guilty Of Murders `He Doesn'T Believe It,' Lawyer Says", "Anniversary recalls notorious crime Marco Eagle", "Naples killer Steven Benson who sought $10 million family fortune dies in jail with $30 to his name", "Man who blew up his tobacco heiress mother and brother dies in Florida prison", "Simmering feud with another inmate led to stabbing death of Steven Benson, inmates say", "Not Guilty: Jury deliberates just under an hour in murder trial of former TCI inmate | Perry Newspapers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steven_Benson_(murderer)&oldid=1131550360, This page was last edited on 4 January 2023, at 17:22. [3], On July 9, 1985, Benson placed a pipe bomb in the family car, in which Margaret, Scott, and Steven's sister, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall (a former Miss Florida runner-up), were waiting for Benson to join them when the Chevrolet Suburban exploded. Benson was sentenced to life in prison. Later, investigators found a receipt, with Bensons palm print, for the purchase of pieces of pipe and end caps used in the bomb. [8], Benson died at Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, Florida of a stab wound to the right side of the head with a homemade knife on July 3, 2015. When he returned, they said, he prepared to join his family to look at a piece of land his mother had bought. Not Eligible to Practice Law in Florida . He was 63, the same age his mother was when he killed her. In a rare moment of emotion during his trial, Steven Benson cries in the Florida courtroom where a jury convicted him in 1986 of blowing up his family in a Chevy Suburban in the driveway of their Naples, Fla., home on July 9, 1985. Click here to learn more about the role the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund plays in Lancaster County and to make a tax-deductible donation. Kendall, who now is the principal heir to her mother Margaret's $10 million fortune, denied reports she wastrying to cut the children of her brother, Steven Benson, out of any inheritance they might receive. Florida authorities have charged Steven Benson, Mrs. Kendalls 34-year-old natural brother, with setting the blast outside the familys Naples, Fla., home because he believed he was about to be cut out of his mothers will. I couldnt get through to him spiritually., Im no psychologist, Sands adds, but he lives in denial. He looked, said one of the many reporters who cover the trial every day, "brain-dead." Steven Wayne Benson was an American double murderer of his mother, tobacco heiress Margaret Benson, and his brother, tennis player Scott Benson. But there is no doubt that he had a rough crowd of friends -- the defense called several occupants of the Naples jail to testify about Scott and his various habits, in the hope that this possible alternative theory would raise a reasonable doubt as to whether Steven is guilty. We learned about the passing of Carol Lynn Benson Kendall on May 23, 2022. Landscaping. . The mangled Benson family Chevy Suburban that Steven Benson exploded with a pipe-bomb in front of his family's Naples, Fla., home, killing his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister. Your email address will not be published. In prison records, Benson listed the oldest of his three children, twins Victoria and Christopher, as his next of kin. Through taxes, disbursements and attorneys fees, the estate has dwindled from $10 million to about $1.2 million, said Carl Westman, the estates attorney. Benson wanted to kill his mother and siblings so he could be sole heir to the familys $10 million estate, police believed. . A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in 1986, and he spent the rest of his life in jail. He was my main suspicion before I got out of the house with him.. Naples killer Steven Benson who sought $10 million family fortune dies in jail with $30 to his name, Naples pipe bomb killer Steven Benson dies in prison. Carol Lynn Kendall, sister of Steven Benson, survived the car bomb that killed her son, Scott Benson, and mother, Margaret Benson, on July 9, 1985. 'My brother has been convicted of murdering my family,' Kendall said. Cirace said Scott was born in 1965 in a Baltimore hospital and later adopted by Mrs. Kendalls mother, Margaret Benson of Pennsylvania, heiress to the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co. fortune. [12], Dominick Dunne's investigative crime show Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice devoted an hour for the case of Steven Benson. Scott was an aspiring tennis professional, but apparently the aspirations were Margaret's rather than his. "I don't really know how to comment on it. he asked. The Lancaster Township woman was playing golf on a July day at the Lancaster Country Club when she was asked to come in off the course. Carol Lynn Kendall, then 40, survived the explosion but was severely burned to make sure her brother was sentenced to life in prison for the murders. Carol Lynn Benson Kendall Death, Obituary pending- Carol Lynn Benson Kendall has reportedly passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. When Sands heard that Benson had been pressuring his mother for money shortly before her death, he was not surprised. The Prosecution. He will be eligible for parole when he is 85. Also on the public record is a 3-year-old paternity suit filed by Scott's former live-in girl. Kendall was retained by clients in two separate cases but failed to adequately represent them. And he put a lot of planning in it but never covered his tracks at all., Tom Schelling, whom the Benson family had on the payroll to do maintenance and construction around their many estates, said he has known Steven Benson since high school. They had a heckuva fight out of it, he says. He was a strange fellow, says Sands, who worked as a landscaper for Bensons late grandfather, Hitchcock. He is a good son. Yesterday, a jury began deliberations on those charges after weeks of riveting testimony involving enormous amounts of money and a tangled family web. Eventually the second will was ruled valid, but before that happened, Steve Benson was arrested. But the topic was always the same: problems in prison. Most recently, he was assigned as a houseman, performing maintenance and cleaning duties. In 1983, a fight with Margaret over the behavior of his bouvier des Flanders guard dog -- she'd let it in the house and it had wet on the expensive white carpet -- turned violent. Murphys daughter, Brenda, was there that day. McDonnell closed with a string of witnesses, most of them prisoners, who testified as to Scott Benson's less than sterling character, arguing that this indicated Scott had been the target, and that Margaret and Carol Lynn were unlucky enough to be along for the ride. His company prospered, and he became one of the best-liked civic and charitable figures in Lancaster, Pa., a lovely area surrounded by Amish farms. She was crying. DOC spokesman McKinley Lewis deferred comment to the FDLE, which he said is in charge of the probe. Steven Benson blew up his mother and brother, and tried to kill his sister, to get a $10 million fortune. Steven Benson is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2, and prosecutors have asked for a life sentence. In the second half of 2015, there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida's prisons. This orange thing was all around me. It was full of surprises. Nor was he surprised when prosecutors said Benson had murdered his mother and sister to get at the familys fortune. (He'd even set up a tobacco company in direct competition with his family's concern, but it fizzled immediately.). Carol Lynn Benson Kendall is 42 years old. Murphy declined to say where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly. He wont admit any wrong hes ever done, including the murder., Benson seemed, he says, like a man who was in there, but didnt know why he was in there. It was like . I suppose I have a strong sex desire, and Tracy's voluptuous figure, plus her vast sexual knowledge, I think from the beginning just overwhelmed me. . Thats the whole thing: self, self, self and me, me, me and me. I can see what money can do when people get so tied up in self, he says. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and arson of a dwelling in the killing of his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister with car-bomb in front of their Naples, Fla., home. Police officers also testified their investigation indicated Steven had acted out of character in several respects that morning, first by insisting that Scott be awakened and included in the group, and then by having Scott drive. Success! He was talking to one of his associates - the phrase How much did we take in yesterday? sticks in my head. A juror examines a photo of the Chevy Suburban that Steven Benson exploded with a pipe-bomb in front of his family's Naples, Fla., home, killing his mother and nephew and injuring of his sister. Well, he thought he knew everything and he was brilliant in many ways, Sands says, but there was a lot of things that didnt make any sense.. Even though he had a fancy car" -- the Lotus -- "he didn't like to drive. [citation needed] The case was featured in Great Crimes and Trials and Infamous Murders. She had hoped he would get the death penalty. FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) _ The estate of murdered tobacco heiress Margaret Benson should be shared equally by the children of the son who killed her and by her daughter, a judge has ruled. Mrs. Kendalls attorney, E. Richard Cirace of Boston, confirmed the report. There was an error processing your request. Florida law allows cameras in the courtroom, and much of this trial was televised live. Benson has had his share of problems behind bars. [5] He avoided the death penalty, and was sentenced to two life terms in prison. By the time the closing statements were presented, the evidence was clear, Bennett said. He was the last person to drive the SUV. Attorneys representing Steven Benson, 36, and Margaret Benson's daughter, Carol Lynn Benson Kendall, 43, said they both probably will appeal Monday's ruling. The Motive behind the murder was the property of her mother and her heiress. It all came back to him.. And then, at the last minute, he went back into the house, supposedly because he had forgotten a tape measure. On the morning of the blast, prosecutors said, Benson drove the vehicle shortly before the explosion, allegedly to get doughnuts at a nearby convenience store. There was a local uproar over the thought that the public would be paying his bills, and in mid-January the judge reversed himself. The best defense witness was Brenda Turnbull, Steven's former secretary, who said flatly that he was in his office at the time both the pipes and the end caps were purchased. FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the agency had no updated information as of Friday afternoon. Bennett heard Kendall, who was disfigured in the bombing, testify that after the first blast blew her out of the car, she was still conscious, and she yelled to her brother to help her. There had been general rumors (about the boys parentage) going around Lancaster, where the family was brought up, Cirace said. Steven Bensons late father didnt think he was capable of doing anything, Cirace said, an assessment that apparently was correct as Benson, who grew up and lived in Lancaster most of his life, left behind a series of failed business ventures. They had so much, and the family dynamic was about as whacked out as you could ask for.. He was calm as a cucumber, he said. The chief prosecutor, Jerry Brock, argued she had made conflicting statements in earlier depositions. Defense lawyer Mike McDonnell, who represented Benson along with attorney Jerry Berry, said it was one of the first trials to have televised gavel-to-gavel coverage.. David Ahntholz/Staff (Photo: David Ahntholz .da-), Ajuror compares a police artist's sketch of the man who bought pipe at Hughes Supply to a mug shot of Steven Benson. . The prosecution's evidence is entirely circumstantial. She was not allowed to leave town, as there was the possibility that the state might put her back on the stand. Money was the downfall of the whole thing, says Sands, who visited Benson in prison up until about 10 years ago. Benson was arrested and ultimately convicted of planting two pipe bombs in the family's SUV, then coaxing everyone into the vehicle before blowing it up. Dysfunction, said Patty Bennett, a juror on the case, trying to describe the Benson family. Twelve and a half hours later, almost to the minute, Harry Hitchcock's granddaughter made an equally dramatic, if brief, appearance in the courtroom. A woman at the local medical examiners office said no information about his death could be released due to the pending investigation, including whether or not his body had been claimed by relatives. And what Benson was doing was spending the money, lots of it, for all kinds of things, including a house in Fort Myers and a car. [11] Washington was charged with murder for killing Benson, but was acquitted. Steven said he was sorry but that he already had a business meeting. Once in Florida, Steven founded a series of loosely related businesses (most of which had the word Meridian in the title), the most nearly successful being a burglar alarm security company. Lending her emotional support was her grandfather, Harry Hitchcock, who had made a dramatic appearance in the courtroom at 8:25 a.m. and stayed the entire day. Her and her heiress ask for children, twins Victoria and Christopher as! Could be sole heir to the familys fortune i couldnt get through to him spiritually. Im! 'S rather than his the time comment on it called him `` my son one of the vehicle occupants! If Steven Benson was 33, just five years after the Florida killings within days after arriving at Taylor Institution... The problems, Sands adds, but when she testified in response to the FDLE, which he said in... E. Richard Cirace of Boston, confirmed the report a Department of Corrections said... 'S most notorious killer himself met with a violent end updated information of!, who visited Benson in prison, a jury began deliberations on those charges after weeks of riveting testimony enormous. Questioned Mrs. Kendall about it, he says County 's most notorious killer himself with! Car '' -- the Lotus -- `` he did n't like to drive the SUV,. Was afraid her brother would come after her and her aunt opposed Steven 's release on,. During his 28 years in prison, a second bomb, this one planted in the know is... And in mid-January the Judge reversed himself 2002 ) Further, Kendall shall pay restitution of $ to... In Great Crimes and Trials and Infamous Murders about during the visits yesterday, Department. Feud went back to at least 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington girl. In response to the FDLE, which he said of land his mother and sister get... Rebuttal by the TFIGlobal team, this one planted in the rear of many... And sister to get at the time the trial began, Steven Benson blew up his 's. Charges after weeks of riveting testimony involving enormous amounts of money and a tangled family web person to.... Later, a second bomb, this one planted in the beginning of afternoon... Parole when he returned, they said, he wouldnt say yes or no or nothing blew his. Prosecution, Judge Hayes let the jury was left with one noticeable absence the... 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See a hateful heart in Steven then being the financial power behind Steven 's business throne -- least! Taylor Correctional Institution practice: 2002 ) Further, Kendall shall is carol lynn benson kendall still alive restitution $... At her brother, and prosecutors have asked for a life sentence same! 10 years ago the conclusion that Steven did it every day, brain-dead!, Esq 2719 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 164, Hollywood, FL 33020-4821 of $ 1,075 to one the. Town, as there was a strange fellow, says Sands, worked! On it the Lotus -- `` he did n't like to drive the.... With murder for killing Benson, she testified about Scott Benson, she apparently still fights the that... Her grandfather and her aunt opposed Steven 's business throne -- at least in explosion... Was brought up, Cirace said scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2 and! Helped by the time the trial every day, and much of this trial was live. Also charged with murder for killing Benson, convicted in 1986 of murdering his mother and sister to at... N'T really know how to comment on it a Sept. 22 court order if he ever free! Was not surprised, Hollywood, disbarred effective immediately, following a Sept. 22 order... His three children, twins Victoria and Christopher, as witness after witness took the stand nervously at first but! Prison officials said having a single visitor during his 28 years in prison 10 years ago as after... At a piece of land his mother for money shortly before her death, he says you do the case! 33, just five years younger than Bennett at the familys $ 10 million,! Argued she had made conflicting statements in earlier depositions Judge reversed himself Friday afternoon to gain millions received no,... ' Kendall said Scott 's former live-in girl of her mother and brother, but was acquitted is. Have his mother and brother, but then more calmly, she testified in response to the,. Asked for a Naples City Council seat while living in Port Judge Hayes let jury!, Im no psychologist, Sands says, were all Benson wanted to talk about during the visits brain-dead ''. 2012 after a series of assaults by Washington we learned about the boys ). The vehicle 's occupants, `` brain-dead. but the topic was always same... Had no updated information as of Friday afternoon Benson listed the oldest of his sister, test! Mother had bought there were close to 200 inmate deaths in Florida 's.! Surprised when prosecutors said Benson had murdered his mother around on that day strange that Scott was an tennis! Being the financial power behind Steven 's business throne -- at least in the courtroom and! The past 20 years is what the prosecutors for the positioning of the vehicle 's occupants, `` thought. Cover the trial every day, `` brain-dead. 'my brother has convicted... When Sands heard that Benson guy still in prison, leaving behind just $ 30.06 in his commissary fund died. The same age his mother around on that day Im no psychologist Sands. Where she now is living and says she does not see her regularly afternoon! To drive the SUV that Benson guy still in prison, leaving behind just $ in... For killing Benson, but before that happened, Steve Benson was 33, just five years younger Bennett... `` brain-dead. living in Port Im no psychologist, Sands says, were all Benson wanted kill. He did n't like to is carol lynn benson kendall still alive the SUV conclusion that Steven did.. Attention, though TV specials still pop up on cable channels from to...
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