Bennett court-martial decision expected in days

A military judge is expected to decide by early next week whether to recommend a full court-martial for Arthur Bennett, beginning a process that could result in the embattled Marine being sentenced to life in a federal prison.

Bennett's three-day Article 32 hearing, to determine if sufficient evidence existed to warrant a court-martial, concluded Thursday after the last two witnesses testified about the man who is charged with faking his death and fleeing to avoid a court-martial in 1994.

Those original charges involved allegations of sexual misconduct in 1992 and 1993 with young girls and his wife at the time.

Bennett's trailer was destroyed in a fiery explosion at Lake Mead and the body inside was burned beyond recognition. It was tenuously identified as Bennett and Nevada authorities ruled the death a suicide.

But it wasn't Bennett.

While his three daughters and other family mourned, the Marine staff sergeant fled first to a sister's home in Ohio -- where he obtained false identification in the name of Joseph Benson -- and eventually returned to Las Vegas where he reunited with his family.

They moved to Hurricane, Utah, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, and bought a house, but the idyllic life ended in late 1997 when Bennett was apprehended on charges of sexual misconduct involving two of his daughters and one of their friends.

One of those daughters testified Thursday that when she was 13 in the summer of 1997, Bennett came into her room one night and sexually assaulted her. On Wednesday, Bennett's oldest daughter testified that he had done the same to her and continued it on a nightly basis for about two years.

The younger daughter told of receiving a letter from her father calling her a liar and stating, "I hope you're proud that you are helping your father die."

She wept while she told the judge that the letter "made me really upset."

"I guess it's because I still love him," she said. "But I hate him for what he did."

A total of eight girls and women gave their stories about sexual misconduct by Bennett to the military judge, Lt. Col. Kenneth Martin, during this week's hearing.

Bennett has pleaded guilty to felony charges in Utah and was sentenced to 3 to 45 years in prison.

He faces murder charges in District Court in Clark County over the man who died in his trailer at Lake Mead and prosecutors have announced they are seeking the death penalty.

The military charges also allege that Bennett committed murder to hide his flight from the Marine Corps disciplinary proceedings under way at the time. While the death penalty is a legal option if Bennett is convicted of the rape and murder charges at a court-martial, Capt. John Deaton said the Marine Corps has never exercised that option.

Deaton said that if a full court-martial is ordered it would be held within 180 days in a Las Vegas courtroom.

Bennett would have the option of having his fate decided by a judge or by a jury of from five to 12 Marines, likely from camps in Southern California, Deaton said. All would be officers unless the defendant exercises his right to have a third of them drawn from the enlisted ranks.

While Bennett could be sentenced to life in the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., without parole, an additional conviction for desertion also would result in a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of all pay and benefits and dishonorable discharge.

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