ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
EUGENE BENNETT has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to attempted murder and abduction of his estranged wife and her minister.
A former FBI agent accused of plotting to kill his wife obeyed orders from a malevolent voice inside his head, a defense psychiatrist testified at Eugene Bennett's trial Wednesday.
The voice, known to Bennett as Ed, might command him to shoplift, or make obsessive records of his movements, psychiatrist Robert Bishop testified.
``He reported a dark, menacing voice that would command him to do things he did not want to do,'' Bishop said.
Bishop examined Bennett in jail several weeks after his arrest.
Bennett has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to attempted murder, abduction and other charges. He claims his wife's lesbian liaison with a crime novelist and his years of FBI undercover work pushed him over the edge.
Bennett's lawyers say Ed is an evil, alternate personality - a vestige of the criminal identities Bennett assumed during 12 years of successful undercover work.
Bennett is accused of kidnapping his wife's minister and forcing the clergyman to lure Bennett's estranged wife, Marguerite, into an ambush at Prince of Peace United Methodist Church on June 23.
The Bennetts, both decorated former FBI agents, were locked in a bitter four-year divorce and custody battle. Bennett claimed his wife's lifestyle made her an unfit mother for their two young daughters.
Marguerite Bennett testified last week she had a brief intimate relationship with crime writer Patricia Cornwell before she and her husband separated in 1992. Cornwell has said only that the two women were friends.
Bennett reported suffering blackouts that sometimes lasted a day or more, Bishop testified. Often, Ed appeared just before the blackout, Bishop said.
Bishop said Bennett told him he ``came to'' after a blackout to find himself facing his estranged wife in a dark hallway, and then hearing gunfire.
Marguerite Bennett shot at her husband inside the darkened church after he jumped out at her with a gun, she testified. The shot missed, and Bennett fled.
Prosecutors claim Bennett is faking insanity because his plot to discredit and kill his wife collapsed around him. Bennett, 42, could face life in prison.
Earlier Wednesday, jurors heard Bennett's rambling, sometimes incoherent conversations with police officers and his lawyer in the hours before his arrest.
Bennett held off police for nearly four hours at his suburban home. He spoke by phone with a hostage negotiator, who tried to persuade him to surrender.
``Ed says we can't talk anymore,'' Bennett said in a weary voice at one point. He then hung up.
Moments later, Bennett called back. A louder, coarser voice came on the line. Bennett eventually surrendered, telling police he had locked Ed in the garage.
Bennett used the alias Edwin Adams, or Ed, as part of a campaign against Marguerite. Bennett, prosecutors claim.
Using that name, Bennett recruited an unwitting accomplice who helped him buy communication equipment and a gun he used the night of the church ambush, prosecutors say.
Also Wednesday, a psychologist specializing in the effects of undercover work testified that successful undercover agents are at high risk for mental problems.
``The better you are at doing this work, the less you should do it,'' University of Ottawa psychology professor Michael Girodo testified.
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