Soldier guilty in girl’s death in barracks
Overdose: He gets almost six years in prison
BRENT CHAMPACO; STAFF WRITER FOR THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Posted at http://www.thenewstribune.com/partners/theolympian/story/1040409.html
A military judge found a Fort Lewis soldier guilty Friday of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of his 16-year-old girlfriend Feb. 15 in his barracks.
After the verdict, Pvt. Timothy Bennitt, 20, was sentenced to almost six years in military confinement, a reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge from the military.
Bennitt, a heavy equipment operator with the 617th Engineer Company, 864th Engineer Battalion, had faced up to 82 years in military confinement.
He was found guilty of aiding and abetting Leah King in her wrongful use of the painkiller oxymorphone and the anxiety pill Xanax, a combination that killed her, the military court ruled. He also pleaded guilty to drug-related charges.
The ruling by Lt. Col. Kwasi Hawks, who presided over the court-martial, doesn’t necessarily mean Bennitt provided King with the drugs, but states that his negligence led to her death.
Hawks read the verdict about 1:30 p.m., four days after the Rolling Prairie, Ind., native’s court-martial began.
Bennitt stood silent and motionless as Hawks read his decision. Later, in a remorseful testimony regarding his punishment, the soldier was visibly shaken.
“It hurts to see their pain,” a quivering Bennitt said, referring to King’s family. “If I could say one thing to the King family, I just want them to know that Leah, in no way, will be forgotten.”
Her mother, Katherine King; grandmother Judy Youngwirth; and older sisters Heather and Stephanie testified about the impact of Leah King’s death.
“It ripped a hole in me,” Katherine King said as family members could be heard crying in the background. “Every day I wake up and remember she is still dead. Every day.”
In testimony leading up to his sentencing, Bennitt answered questions about his past.
He grew up without a father and with a less-than-nurturing mother, according to his family. He dropped out of high school and became addicted to painkillers after eye surgery.
Barbara Bennitt, his grandmother from Indiana, said her grandson made mistakes, but she believes “Timmy” is a good person.
The verdict came almost a year after King’s death, which shocked people inside and outside Fort Lewis.
King and a 16-year-old friend, Trashauna Yoacham, overdosed on the two prescription pills. Yoacham survived only after doctors at Madigan Army Medical Center worked to save her.
Bennitt sneaked the two into Fort Lewis on Feb. 14 and the three went to his barracks to attend a party. There, King and Yoacham crushed and snorted the drugs.
The government contended Bennitt supplied the pills; his defense team argued King brought in the drugs without Bennitt’s knowledge.
He eventually left the room to talk to fellow soldiers and, according to his testimony, to facilitate a marijuana sale off post. He returned and fell asleep next to the girls, who were asleep in his bed.
He awoke about 3 a.m., and King lay motionless on his arm.
In the days and months after King died, Bennitt was isolated from his unit and questioned by investigators. Government lawyers used those statements – including one in which he admitted snorting drugs with a dollar bill in his barracks – to help pin their case.
It became apparent over the last week that Bennitt was one of at least five soldiers in his unit who used drugs habitually. Some of those soldiers testified against him. Bennitt admitted he used and distributed oxycodone, oxymorphone and marijuana more than once, dealt Xanax once and used cocaine once.
In closing arguments, government lawyers said Bennitt essentially was playing a shell game, shifting blame for King’s death back onto her.
His defense team argued that using prescription drugs to get high was a way of life in King’s Tillicum trailer park.
His defense also pointed to Yoacham’s testimony that King had brought the pills in her purse, along with the straw they used to snort them.
As for Bennitt’s sworn statements, the defense argued he was tired and in a bad emotional state when he gave them.
“There’s no reliable evidence that Pvt. Bennitt gave Leah King drugs,” said Maj. Carol Brewer, one of his two attorneys.
Still, Hawks concluded that his negligence and actions helped lead to King’s death.
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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.