Trent Christopher Benson is a serial predator

[w8ng4msrgt]

MESA, Ariz. - Police say a 38-year-old man has been charged with multiple murder and sexual assault counts after DNA evidence connected him to attacks against four women.

Trent Christopher Benson made an initial court appearance on Thursday and was ordered held without bond. The public defender's office was appointed to represent him but a lawyer has not been named.

Benson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of violent sexual assault, three counts of kidnapping and one count of sexual assault.

Benson was arrested Wednesday and questioned about the four attacks that date back to 2004.

Police say Benson was previously arrested for soliciting prostitutes.

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Still looking for mug.

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[w8ng4msrgt]

The man Mesa police arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting four women and killing two others in Mesa and Phoenix has a 7-year-old son and recently opened a water and ice business.

Trent Christopher Benson is being held without bond in a Maricopa County Jail on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of violent sexual assault, three counts of kidnapping and one count of sexual assault, Mesa police spokesman Detective Steve Berry said Thursday.

Mesa police arrested Benson around 2:15 p.m. after having him under surveillance for a day while DNA was obtained to match evidence to link him to the crimes.

Police on Wednesday said Benson has several prostitution arrests as a customer. The two slain women had a history of prostitution.

Benson, 36, pleaded guilty to public sexual indecency and loitering for an incident in March 2001 in Mesa and sentenced to 10 days in jail and $555 fine.

Benson, a Mesa resident, is listed as a business partner for an ice cream, shaved ice and water store called Lindsay Water and Ice in a strip mall near Lindsay and University roads, records show.

Timmy Tiang, who owns a nearby nail business, said the store owners had only been operating for a month or two. The store changed ownership in late March, records show.

Maricopa County Superior Court records show that Benson had sole custody of his 7-year-old son and had filed an order of protection in 2004 against the child's mother on the grounds that she was an unfit mother because of alcoholism. He wrote that he was worried the mother would take the boy to the Navajo Reservation, where she was from.

The records show Benson has lived in an apartment in the 200 block of West Brown Road for at least three years. At the time, Benson listed his employer as a used-car dealer in Mesa. He no longer works there. The court ordered the mother not to have face-to-face contact with the boy unless supervised and approved by Benson. She also was ordered not to go to Benson's home or business.

The earliest of the four attacks occurred Nov. 1, 2004, when the partially clothed body of Alisa Marie Beck, 21, was found in an alley in west Mesa. Beck had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Beck, a native of Pennsylvania, left her son, Jordan, now 8, behind when she moved to the Valley for a fresh start. She had only been in Phoenix for about a year before she was killed and had no Mesa ties.

"She was a young girl and starting her life over, and she didn't get the chance," Mesa police homicide Detective Domenick Kaufman told The Republic in 2005.

She was described by friends and family as a funny, outgoing girl who loved adventure, poetry and drawing and dreamed of going to school to become an artist.

The next crime occurred nearly three years later, a stretch that police describe as unusual. Police said a Mesa woman was abducted Aug. 16 near Main Street and Horne, taken to a different location and raped before escaping.

Two months later, on Oct. 14, the nude body of Karen Jane Campbell, 44, was found on a road in west Mesa. She had been raped and strangled. Then on Nov. 4, a 35-year-old Phoenix woman was abducted behind a business near Seventh Street and Osborn Road at about 1 a.m., taken to a different location and raped and beaten. She was found by a passer-by.

[w8ng4msrgt]

Mesa police are seeking tips to help them arrest a killer who murdered two women in separate cases and sexually assaulted a third who escaped by running down a street naked.

But Police Chief George Gascón stopped short of using the term "serial killer."

"We have DNA linkage on three incidents, two murders and one assault," he said. "At this point, we don't want to create more fear than this is going to create. There's no question there's linkage."

He said police are working with the FBI to establish a suspect profile, and there is a possibility that additional crimes would be attributed to the same killer.

Police said Mondaythat the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 47-year-old woman, around 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 is linked by DNA evidence to the Nov. 1, 2004, slaying of Alisa Marie Beck and the Oct. 14 slaying of Karen Jane Campbell.

Beck, 21, and Campbell, 44, were transients, prostitutes and had a history of drug abuse, police said. They were known to associate with drug dealers.

Detectives are looking at possible explanations for the gap between the killings, including that the murderer may have been incarcerated, may have left Arizona or may have simply stopped, said Detective Steve Berry, a police spokesman. They have been unable to establish a link with the slaying of a third woman who was strangled and found in a canal.

Beck was strangled, while police only would say that Campbell was the victim of "homicidal violence" and have declined to reveal how she died in order to protect the investigation. Police also declined to provide details about the 47-year-old sexual-assault victim beyond her age and race.

"She's very lucky to be alive," Gascón said, but he would not say how she managed to escape. Police said the woman was kidnapped at Main and Horne streets while walking home.

The abductor jumped out of a small, white, four-door car and grabbed her in the parking lot of a mall, police said. She was taken to a house or apartment and was assaulted.

The victim managed to flee naked on foot, police said, and was able to get dressed while running and flag down a cab. She called police after the cab took her home and a sexual-assault investigation ensued.

"We know there were people who probably observed some activity that was suspicious, out of the ordinary," Gascón said. "We want the community to understand that there is no information that is insignificant at this point."

Gascón said police are withholding some information, such as the sexual-assault victim's name, to protect the investigation and to avoid eliciting bogus confessions.

Homicide detectives are staffing a hotline the public can call to provide information. The hotline number is 480-644-5763.

"We have very limited information at this point from the public," police Commander Joe Shelley said. "It's extremely unusual, especially with the officers who work the area."

The woman who survived the attack was unable to identify the race of her attacker but said he was 25 to 35 years old, 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches tall and had short dark hair.

Shelley said there is no DNA evidence to link the killer to the slaying of a fourth woman, Elise Lea Dewakuku, who was found Nov. 1 in an irrigation canal near 24th Street and McKellips Road in Mesa.

But he said detectives are still seeking a possible DNA link through other databanks.

Police previously said that Dewakuku was strangled, that her body was scraped and bruised with a boot or shoe print on her back. She also had methamphetamine or amphetamine in her blood.

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[jlt080405]

Detectives are looking at possible explanations for the gap between the killings, including that the murderer may have been incarcerated, may have left Arizona or may have simply stopped, said Detective Steve Berry, a police spokesman.

The murdering bastard didnt stop no way I buy that!

[Unamused Cat]

Mug shot

[w8ng4msrgt]

Serial predator suspect admits sex with two victims

by Jim Walsh and Michael Kiefer - Jun. 9, 2008 03:23 PM
The Arizona Republic

Accused serial predator Trent Christopher Benson admitted to Mesa police that he had sex with two women who later turned up dead and ran over one of them after dumping her naked body in the middle of a street.

But Benson stopped short of confessing to the murders, according to court records released Monday after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge granted The Arizona Republic's request to unseal court records that were sealed when the suspect was arrested.

Benson also is charged in two rapes. One of those victims said she was attacked from behind by two Asian men, was drugged with a rag soaked with a chemical, and lost consciousness, according to the records. She awoke to discover she was being sexually assaulted by one man while being filmed by a video camera mounted near the ceiling in a bedroom. She said there were several monitors in the room and could see herself on them. The assault was interrupted by screams.

“The two males left her to attend to a screaming voice. This brief lapse gave the victim time to gather her clothes and flee the residence'' during the Aug. 16, 2007, attack, according to the report. There was no elaboration in the report about the screams.

Benson, 35, was linked by police through DNA evidence to the sexual assault of four women, two of whom were strangled. The report specifies that both victims, Alisa Marie Beck and Karen Campbell, were murdered by ligature strangulation.

Benson recalled picking up Campbell near Main Street and Extension Road in Mesa and said he became enraged when she asked for more money than the agreed upon price for sex acts, according to the court records. He claims to have memory loss and waking up to find her dead. He grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her to his car. He then told police that he drove to a nearby side street.

“As he sped away, he heard a thud which he believes may have been from running her over,'' the court records said. Campbell was found dead Oct. 14, 2007.

Benson also admitted he had sex with Beck, who he picked up after he left a stripper bar. He told investigators he got angry with her during the sex act and that he choked her until she was unconscious.

He also said he grabbed her hair and hit her head against the steering wheel. Beck was found dead Nov. 1, 2004, in a Mesa alley.

The last attack attributed to Benson was the abduction and sexual assault of a Phoenix woman near Seventh Street and Osborn Road on Nov. 4. The victim told police she was attacked from behind by an Asian male, the report said.

“He subdued her by placing a cord over her neck then strangling her before being drug into a white car. She lost consciousness and does not recall what occurred at the time of the attack,'' the report said. Police said the woman was dumped near the spot where she was abducted and appeared to have been left for dead.

But it was the Aug. 16 attack, in which the victim escaped, that first led police to Benson. A “street source'' sent police to a pub in north Mesa, where they talked to Benson and discovered he drove a white car. Police discovered he had a history of prostitution arrests and put him under surveillance.

Police learned that Benson and his brother, Andrew, were living together at a north Mesa townhouse complex. They tracked Trent Benson to the Water and Ice store he owned in the 400 block of North Lindsay Road and saw him smoking outside throughout the day. Officers seized a cigarette butt outside the building.

Andrew Benson has not been named as a suspect and has not been arrested in the case.

The cigarette butt proved critical, because police found DNA evidence that linked Benson to all four attacks.

Officers served search warrants on Benson's house, car and business. They found handcuffs and took 15 videotapes, a video camera and computer equipment, among other things.

The court documents indicate that prosecutors believe that they eventually will seek the death penalty in the case.

Police wanted to keep the records seal to protect the investigation, including information about a potential accomplice.

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[Jerri Blank]

Mesa man guilty on 2 murder counts

PHOENIX (AP) — A jury has convicted a Mesa man on two counts of first degree murder and two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping in the rape and killing of two prostitutes and the sexual assault of two other women in attacks that he said stemmed from his rage about how much they were charging.

The jury returned the verdicts Monday against 39-year-old Trent Christopher Benson.

Maricopa County Superior Court says the jury will return Monday afternoon to begin the aggravation phase.

The jury also found Benson guilty of kidnapping and attempted sex assault.

During the trial, prosecutor Kirsten Valenzuela said that DNA evidence linked Benson to all four attacks, something police had previously said.

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Me...ts-2166887.php

[Hellsbells]

Mesa man gets death in killings of prostitutes

A Maricopa County Superior Court jury on Friday sentenced Trent Benson to death for the murders of two prostitutes he beat to death and dumped by the roadside, one in 2004 and the other in 2007.

He was sentenced to an additional 135.5 years in prison for eight other offenses that include kidnapping and sexual assault.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...h-penalty.html