He spent 17 years in prison for murder. A jury just said he didn’t commit the crime.
Gary Bennett will soon be free from prison. On Thursday he heard the two words he waited 17 years to hear.
“Not guilty.”
An Horry County jury handed down its verdict after a week-long trial related to the killing of Eva Marie Martin in May 2000. Bennett was facing a second trial on the murder charge, as well as counts of first-degree burglary and armed robbery. The jury acquitted him on the charges after seven hours of deliberations on Wednesday and Thursday.
Bennett was previously convicted in 2003 for the murder, but has maintained his innocence for the past two decades.
Bennett collapsed and wrapped his arms around his lawyers as the verdict was read. A large smile came across his face as he started to cry as did others at his defense table.
The decision means that Bennett will soon be released from prison and can return to society as a free man.
“It feels like a dream,” Bennett told The Sun News about 10 minutes after learning he would be freed. “I know I’m not guilty. It’s just so hard to prove it.”
Bennett said he wanted to thank his lawyers for their years of work on the case. He said when he first started to contest the case in 2017, he expected to be freed. But it took until 2020 for him to be released.
Closing arguments
On Wednesday, state and defense prosecutors had the chance to address the jury for a final time in closing arguments.
Senior Assistant Solicitor Mary Ellen Walter detailed the state’s version of what happened in May 2000. She discussed how Andrew Lindsey and Bennett were co-workers who became friends. The two then committed a series of burglaries at places they worked.
“They became partners in crime. Confederates, criminal confederates,” Walter said.
The two were also friends with Martin and the group regularly hung out together.
But, the burglaries weren’t enough for Bennett, Walter said. He wanted to rob the safe at the Taco Bell, where Martin worked. Bennett and Lindsey tried to get Martin involved in their plan, but were rebuffed.
On May 23, 2000, Lindsey and Bennett went to Martin’s Myrtle Beach area mobile home under the ruse of needing to get a stuffed animal, Walter said.
There—Lindsey testified and Walter repeated—Lindsey heard a conversation where Bennett tried to get Martin involved in the scheme. The conversation turned heated, then turned personal and that is where the night became deadly.
“We may never know exactly what happened in the trailer that night, but we do know the end result,” Walter said.
Martin was held down on the bed, had her head lifted and her throat slashed. Walter said it didn’t matter if Bennett or Lindsey delivered the fatal blow, they were both at the scene.
“Look at the violent and personal nature of that cut, and who had that violent personal relationship with Marie? It was [Bennett],” she said.
Walter also noted the letter from jailhouse informant Adam Wiseman. The letter included details of the crime that Walter said could have only come from Bennett, who told Wiseman about the incident while the two were housed in the same area of J. Reuben Long Detention Center.
“There was no other way he could get these facts,” she said.
As defense attorney Aimee Zmroczek spoke to the jury, she told them the state’s timeline didn’t make sense. She also referred to Lindsey as “Lying Lindsey” almost every time she mentioned his name. Zmroczek noted how Lindsey was convicted of murder in Illinois long before moving to South Carolina in the late 1990s.
She highlighted Lindsey’s changing story from the moment he was arrested and how some details were heard for the first time, 20 years after the crime, when he took the witness stand.
Lindsey’s actions led to Martin’s death and put Bennett behind bars, Zmroczek said. She added Lindsey’s doings ruined lives, including Martin’s and Bennett’s children.
“Andrew Lindsey’s word and actions took Heather Mitchell’s mother, it took Mallory Bennet’s father, we can make one of those things right today,” Zmroczek said.
Police investigative notes say that Bennett was on the porch of a different trailer at 8:15 p.m. on May 23, 2000, Zmroczek said. There is no way he could have gotten to Martin’s mobile home 15 minutes later when Lindsey said the murder happened.
The crime’s motive also didn’t hold up to scrutiny, Zmroczek said, as the safe only had a few hundred dollars.
“All of this happens over $50 a person? This doesn’t make sense,” she said.
There were also numerous phone calls from Lindsey to Bennett before the crime, and the day after, Zmroczek said. The day after Martin’s murder, Lindsey’s phone number called the funeral home handling her remains, the Taco Bell and the Sun News.
Zmroczek also addressed Wiseman’s letter and said that he and Bennett were not housed together until after the letter was written. But, Wiseman was around Lindsey for about a month, before Wiseman moved near Bennett.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 10:10 AM.
