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Saturday, February 25, 2006
Jetseta Gage: Kidnapped, Raped & Murdered By Roger Bentley.
Published February 25, 2006
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BRIAN RAY/ASSOCIATED PRESSIn Iowa City: Roger Bentley, 38, of Brandon was sentenced to consecutive life terms for first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder on Friday. Relatives of Jetseta Gage spoke afterward. |
'Roger destroyed our world'
Slain girl's family speaks as Bentley is sentenced to life
Iowa City, Ia. — Jetseta Gage's mother believes Roger Bentley plotted her daughter's kidnapping and took advantage of her family's needs — he offered to fix their van — to get access to the 10-year-old girl he later raped and killed.
"They offer to do things for you to get your trust," Trena Gage said Friday after Bentley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. "That's what he did."
Bentley, 38, of Brandon was sentenced to consecutive life terms for first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder.
Bentley, a convicted sex offender and a family acquaintance whose brother already was charged with sexually abusing Jetseta, snatched the girl from her Cedar Rapids house March 24. He drove her to a vacant Johnson County mobile home, raped her and suffocated her. The girl's body was found March 25 naked, bound at the ankles and stuffed in a bathroom cabinet inside the mobile home.
Trena Gage and her mother, Teresa Gage, started to cry as they gave victim impact statements during the 45-minute hearing. Teresa, who was baby-sitting Jetseta and her siblings when Bentley visited the house March 24, said the girl's death devastated family, neighbors and school friends.
"In one night, Roger destroyed our world," she said.
Trena Gage, who was taking classes the evening of the abduction, described the panic she felt when her mother called to report Jetseta's disappearance. What followed was the longest night of her life, Trena Gage said.
"I was praying my little girl was still alive," she said.
Even when Jetseta's body was located and officers needed only a fingerprint match for certainty, she was in disbelief, she said. She didn't see her daughter's body until the visitation, when touching the girl's cold hand brought a flood of recognition, she said.
"Tears of sorrow came over me, and hatred and anger for Roger Bentley overwhelmed me," she said.
One of the hardest things for her is imagining the horrors her daughter experienced in the final minutes of life, she said.
"It says in the Bible that any person who hurts a child should have a stone put around his neck and be cast into the sea. I believe any person who rapes and murders should be given the death penalty," she said after the hearing. Iowa is one of 12 states without capital punishment.
Bentley, wearing ankle shackles and an orange jumpsuit, stared at the table during the statements. He mumbled "No, your honor" when Judge Patrick Grady asked if he wanted to say anything. Grady denied Bentley's request for a new trial, saying the jury's guilty verdicts were supported by evidence.
Grady told Bentley his crime was one of the cruelest Grady had known during a 25-year career.
"As a representative of Linn and Johnson counties and the entire state, I find it very difficult to express the level of fear and loathing that your actions caused us all," he said. "Given the nature of what you did, you deserve the maximum penalty allowed by law."
First-degree kidnapping and murder each carry a mandatory life prison term without parole, but Grady said ordering Bentley to serve consecutive terms sends a message that his sentence should never be commuted.
Grady ordered Bentley to pay $159,000 for restitution and funeral costs, although he has the prospect of only meager earnings from prison jobs.
More than 40 people, including relatives, law enforcement officers and attorneys, gathered for the sentencing. Gage's relatives hugged and cried afterward.
The Gage family still faces several challenges. Among them: Trena Gage testifying in sex abuse trials against Bentley's brother and waiting for the results of an investigation into whether Trena Gage or Teresa Gage could have done more to prevent Jetseta's death. That Department of Human Services report will likely remain secret until after the March trials for James Bentley, Roger Bentley's brother, said department spokesman Roger Munns.
Jetseta's younger siblings, Ian, 8, and Leonna, 3, will remain in foster care until Trena Gage can prove they will be safe at home, Munns said.
Brother's trials set for next monthRoger Bentley's brother, James Bentley, 34, of Vinton will stand trial next month on charges he molested Jetseta Gage.
James Bentley is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse based on allegations he abused the 10-year-old girl several times between 2002 and 2004 at his Vinton apartment and her Cedar Rapids townhouse. James started dating Jetseta's mother, Trena Gage, in the mid-1990s.
The trials, to be March 13 and 27, were moved from Benton and Linn counties to Clarke County because of extensive publicity in eastern Iowa of Jetseta's murder.
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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060225/NEWS01/602250336/1001&lead=1
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