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Jordan W. Bentley |
By JAMES MERRIWEATHER
The News Journal
05/09/2006
DOVER -- Prosecutors and investigators ignored evidence that pointed to someone other than Jordan W. Bentley as the triggerman in the 2004 shooting death of Joseph L. "Lucky" Cox, Bentley's attorney argued Monday.
The real culprit, Leo John Ramunno said, is Roland "Buddy" Pyle, Bentley's 17-year-old cousin. Ramunno noted testimony from a 13-year-old witness -- as well as the victim's uncle, Joseph A. "Al" Cox -- that the shooter was wearing a white T-shirt. He said there was undisputed testimony that his client wore a black shirt to the younger Cox's home near Magnolia, where authorities say Bentley shot the 17-year-old victim four times for trying to give Bentley's girlfriend a $350 ring for her birthday.
In closing arguments, Ramunno accused prosecutors of coaching their key witnesses -- Pyle and Tina L. Creed, Bentley's girlfriend -- to tailor their statements to fit the state's case. He said Pyle shot Cox after becoming startled by a noise or maybe just to impress his cousin. Ramunno said Creed lied because she was looking for a favorable outcome on unrelated drug charges.
"He got away with murder, and they let him," Ramunno said in discounting the state's case against Bentley, who's charged with first-degree murder in Cox's death.
In their closing argument, prosecutors dismissed shirt colors as the kind of insignificant details that get lost as witnesses react to seeing a fatal shooting. They pointed to testimony that Bentley, now 19, bought the gun from an acquaintance, showed it to Creed days before the shooting, kept it stashed under some clothes in his bedroom and rode with it in his lap to the murder scene.
"Buddy [Pyle] had no motive to shoot Joe [Cox]," Deputy Attorney General Gregory R. Babowal said in summing up the state's case.
"The defendant did have a motive. [Cox] had given his girlfriend a ring."
After seven days of testimony, the state rested its case against Bentley on Monday. Superior Court President Judge James T. Vaughn Jr., issued deliberation instructions, then dismissed the jury until 9 a.m. today.
Bentley, who also faces weapons charges, was just 17 at the time of the slaying, so the state is barred from seeking the death penalty against him. If convicted of first-degree murder, he'll face a life term in prison without the possibility of release.
Both Pyle and Creed identified Bentley as the shooter, but, on cross-examination, Creed changed her testimony to say that her view of the deck where Cox was shot was obscured by a vehicle.
According to testimony, Creed told Cox that she could not accept the $350 ring because she was Bentley's girlfriend, and she later tried to return it to the Dover Mall jewelry store where Cox bought it. The store refused to take it back, telling Creed that only the buyer could return the ring.
According to prosecutors, Bentley became enraged when Creed told him what happened at the jewelry store. He allegedly picked up Pyle at his girlfriend's house, serving notice of a "situation" that needed to be resolved. In his testimony, Pyle testified that Creed and the cousins then drove to Bentley's grandmother's house, where Bentley picked up the .32-caliber pistol allegedly used in the shooting.
When Creed balked at Bentley's order to drive him to Cox's house, Deputy Attorney General Robert J. O'Neill said, Bentley pointed the gun at her head. As she drove to Cox's house against her will, Creed sped up to 80 miles per hour, prompting Bentley to grab the wheel and steer the car into a soybean field.
'I was just confused'
From the witness stand, Bentley disputed notions that he had gone to Cox's home to kill him.
"I was just confused, and I wanted to know what was going on," he said.
After a brief exchange about the ring, Pyle said, Bentley shot Cox, and, after getting back into Creed's car, he turned to Pyle and allegedly said, "That's the way it's done."
In testimony that was disputed by Bentley, Pyle said the three teenagers then drove back to Bentley's home, where he told relatives that "he had just killed somebody." He allegedly grabbed a wad of cash and a silver tin that prosecutors said held the murder weapon, then got into his blue Camaro and, with Pyle and Creed still in tow, drove to his grandmother's beach house.
'Blame-Buddy' scenario
The next day, Bentley's mother, Lisa Bentley, picked the teenagers up at the beach house and drove them in a pickup truck to Washington, D.C., Pyle said, adding that, at some point along the way, he and Bentley threw the gun and a bag of bullets into a body of water. Pyle said he was shocked when the 'blame-Buddy' scenario was hatched in a Washington motel room at the suggestion of Lisa Bentley.
The thinking, prosecutors said, was that, as a 15-year-old, Pyle would face a no harsher penalty than six years in a juvenile facility.
Three days after the shooting, police officers in western Pennsylvania used spike strips to puncture the tires of the pickup truck, which was in an 80-mile chase at speeds of up to 130 miles per hour. Jordan Bentley, the driver, was the only person to flee from officers, prosecutors said, demonstrating a "consciousness of guilt" that should figure in his fate.
Contact James Merriweather at 678-4273 or jmerriweather@delawareonline.com.
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