ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE FORMER SWAT team member accused of trying to kill his then-wife is a "master manipulator," the prosecutor told jurors.
Eugene Bennett was a wily former FBI undercover agent and SWAT team officer who feigned insanity after his bizarre plot to kill his wife went awry, prosecutors said during closing arguments Monday.
But a defense attorney told jurors that Bennett had watched his career fall apart and was struggling to maintain his sanity when the discovery of his wife's affair with another woman pushed him over the brink.
Bennett, who is using an insanity defense, is accused of trying to kill his then-wife, Marguerite Bennett, and abducting her minister on June 23.
Eugene Bennett, 42, is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and seven other charges. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of all of them. The jury retired Monday evening after about five hours of deliberation and planned to resume this morning.
Eugene Bennett believed that his wife would no longer need him because of her relationship with best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, defense attorney Reid Weingarten said.
His wife's affair and the effect he feared it would have on their two small daughters ``threw him topsy-turvy,'' Weingarten said. ``It profoundly affected him when he learned that he in effect had been a sperm bank. He, in return, responded by filing for divorce,'' Weingarten said.
The fact that Marguerite Bennett survived the encounter at the Prince of Peace United Methodist Church is proof that Eugene Bennett had no plans to kill anyone, Weingarten said.
``If Gene wanted to do Margo that night, it would have been child's play for a SWAT guy. That's not what happened,'' Weingarten said.
Eugene Bennett fled the church after the incident, locked himself in his house and dialed 911. On a tape of the phone call, Eugene Bennett continued a harangue about his wife for hours and said that an evil alter ego named Ed was trying to control him. When he surrendered, Eugene Bennett told police he had locked Ed in the garage.
Prosecutor James Willett, however, described Eugene Bennett as a ``master manipulator'' whose deceptive skills rival those of mass-murderers Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Speck.
``He is not criminally insane. He had a real good reason to fake it. He was able more than anyone else to give a false impression,'' Willett said.
The Bennetts separated in 1992, and Marguerite Bennett accused her husband of defrauding the FBI of $17,000 in official expenses.
Eugene Bennett pleaded guilty to fraud in 1994 and served time in prison. Marguerite Bennett resigned from the FBI that year and went to work as a security guard. In November, Marguerite Bennett was granted a divorce and custody of the children.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Former FBI agent Marguerite Bennett waits as theby CNBjury decides whether her ex-husband is insane or guilty of plotting
to kill her.