UCI Doctoral Student Guilty of Murdering Wife, Jury Says

A UC Irvine doctoral student was convicted today of first-degree murder for gunning down his estranged wife nearly five years ago.

Brian Hughes Benedict, 40, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 12.

“The verdict was right, but our daughter is still dead,” said the victim’s father, Alan Clarke.

Robert Mueller of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office conceded that his client gunned down the 30-year-old victim on Sept. 13, 2009, and was planning to flee with their son and $20,000 in cash. But the defense attorney argued that the crime did not rise to the level of first-degree murder.

Benedict was upset that a judge presiding over the child custody dispute involving his then-4-year-old son, Aiden, took away his every-weekend visitation and only allowed visits with the boy every other weekend and on Wednesdays, Mueller said.

Benedict, a commissioned officer in the Air Force, was growing more depressed at the time also because a planned one-year separation would not lead to the reconciliation he had hoped would occur with his estranged wife, Rebecca, his attorney told jurors.

“He interpreted the judge’s ruling as he had lost Aiden,” Mueller said.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy countered that Benedict was upset about being ordered to pay his wife’s legal bills and $920 monthly in child support until his spouse finished school, when it would be adjusted according to her income.

“The defendant was very upset about this,” the prosecutor told the jury. “He thought he would have to quit school, and the judge called him a bad dad and he made several comments about wanting to kill himself.”

Benedict wrote two wills after the divorce court ruling, a short one and a lengthier one he put in a freezer, Murphy said. In both wills, he left his money and most of his other belongings to his sister and directed that his family take custody of his son, Murphy said.

In the longer version, Benedict indicated he planned to kill his estranged wife and apologized “for taking their (his in-laws’) daughter on that day he intended to kill himself,” the prosecutor said.

Benedict asked his wife to bring their son over to visit, and when she returned to pick him up about 7 p.m., “the defendant took a hammer and took a swing at her head ... It took a big clump of hair out of her head,” Murphy said.

She “went running for her life,” with her husband in tow, shooting at her, Murphy said. He said the victim fell to the ground when she was hit by the gunfire, allowing the defendant to “walk up to her and shoot her in the face, and when she fell face-down, he shot her in the back of the head.”

Benedict intended to take his son and a gym bag containing the $20,000 and flee, Murphy said, but was confronted by Flavio Enrique Andrade, who witnessed the shooting, and Jesse Barrueta, who heard the gunshots and called 911.

Benedict claimed his wife struck him first, prompting the two to “essentially beat him up” and hold him until police arrived, Murphy said.

Jurors deliberated about a day before convicting Benedict of murder and finding true special circumstance allegations that the Naval Academy graduate committed the killing for financial gain and was lying in wait for the victim.

“We’re happy the jury was able to sort through all the legal issues and made the right call,” Murphy said.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.