The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 261

ft The Register's Iowa Weekly Page 1 7 Page 16 Tuesday, May 22. 2007 MURDER DEFENDANT TESTIFIES 10 YEARS FOR MANSLAUGHTER 2 LIFE SENTENCES FOR MURDERS d1 (israt CtaSDistai mm flaunt 1)11 wsff flr mm He admits taking cash, pawning his mother's jewelry Sentence may be slashed for time already served and good behavior Victims' grandchildren, in-laws and more verbally condemn killer if 'it it i V- A 'I If. ir 1 -f A' 'J i Shawn Bentler testified that his cell phone was found at the Bentler house because he left it in his mother's car when she visited him in Quincy the evening of Oct. 13. Bentler told the judge that he had no reason to kill his family, whom he said he loved.

Mike Bentler, who owned two lumberyards, was a good provider for the family and enjoyed taking his children hunting, Bentler testified. "Whatever he did, he was the best at it." Bentler described several jobs after high school at Home Depot, Lowe's and two car dealerships. To get his last check from Neal Coleman Auto Dealers in Quincy, Bentler told a lie about his father, he testified. "I told them I had a death in the family, that my dad had died," Bentler said. "Did they give you your check?" Arbabha asked.

"Yeah," Bentler said. Prosecutors allege Bentler's motive was money. Bentler stands to inherit $2.8 million as the sole surviving child of Mike and Sandra Bentler. However, if convicted, he gets nothing under Iowa's inheritance laws. "The state asserts he was desperate for money," Arbabha said.

"The idea you would kill somebody to inherit money would be meaningless under the terms of the law." Bentler admitted May 11 he took cash from his parents and stole his mom's jewelry to pawn. By ERIN JORDAN REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU Keosauqua, la. Shawn Bentler admitted May 1 1 that he had stolen from his parents and had told friends that he hated his father, but he denied killing his parents and three teenage sisters in their house near Bonaparte. Bentler, 23, of Quincy, 111., gave short answers and remained calm during his surprise testimony of more than an hour May 1 1, the last day of his trial on five counts of first-degree murder. "Did you gun down your whole family on the morning of Oct.

14?" asked Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown. "No," Bentler said. "You're disputing that fact, even though your own sister identifies you three times?" Brown said, referring to a 911 call from Shayne Bentler that ends with the exclamation of "Shawn, no!" and a scream. "Yes," Bentler said. Bentler is charged with killing his father, Mike Bentler, 53, mother, Sandra Bentler, 47, and sisters Sheena, 17, Shelby, 15, and Shayne, 14.

District Judge Michael Mullins will rule on his guilt or innocence. Brown told Mullins that he could convict Bentler solely on the 91 1 recording, in which Shayne Bentler, crouching in her bedroom closet, whispers to the sheriff's dispatcher that her brother is in the house around 3:38 a.m. on Oct. 14. Sandra Bentler can be heard screaming.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, not you," she told Overlin. "You should have gone to church, and you would have known. You took away my sister, and now you will rot in hell." Overlin gave no detailed statements other than to acknowledge the crime, to mock a $300,000 court-ordered restitution payment "I'll just take it out of petty cash" and to reiterate that he pleaded guilty "just to speed things up." The plea had been stalled for several weeks while the judge and Overlin's lawyers waited for medical confirmation that he was sane enough to stand trial. Relatives said after the hearing that they were convinced that Overlin, who has claimed he was harassed by his stepmother and not allowed to walk through her house in his shoes, pleaded guilty at least partly because he didn't want the details of his poor hygiene to become public. Naomi Overlin's relatives have said Russell Overlin carried a bucket to his upstairs bedroom because he was too lazy to use the downstairs bathroom.

Even then, they said, he soiled the bed. The stench, relatives said, was bad enough to require that his bedroom door be closed at all times. The elder Overlins had banned Russell Overlin from the house and ordered him to live in a trailer behind the barn, relatives said. By JEFF ECKHOFF REGISTER STAFF WRITER Bob Martindale spoke calmly and firmly to the 290-pound "lowlife" who was about to be sentenced for the murder of Martindale's mother-in-law. He did his best to rub it in.

"I can still go to Maid-Rite and buy a beef burger," Martindale said as he reached into his breast pocket to hold up another of Russell Overlin's favorite snacks. "I can still buy Snickers candy bars and eat them. "You gave all that up." Overlin, 52, was sentenced May 11 to two consecutive life terms in prison after he pleaded guilty of killing his father, Gilbert Overlin, 81, and his stepmother, Naomi Overlin, 71. Russell Overlin, a sporadically employed truck driver, repeatedly has confessed to investigators and reporters that he murdered the elderly couple out of hatred for the way he was treated in their rural Mitchell-ville home. "I did have a strong dislike for my father," Overlin told The Des Moines Register in March.

"There never was any recognition from him or feelings of support, really. And as far as the stepmom goes, she made me feel lower than a dog." Overlin again confessed May 1 1, saying he planned the killings for a week before he beat the couple with a baseball bat Jan. 28 and dumped them in a cistern on his JOHN GAINESASSOCIATED PRESS only about what happened that day, but about what kind of man her father was. "I guess while you were in prison the first time, you had a lot of time to make up a story," she said. "You, your attorneys and possibly your family created an imaginary character and you decided to call him Tom Lyon." Cheri Lyon said her father was not a foul-tempered bully who abused his livestock, but a hardworking and popular farmer who called his daughter every day and sent her photographs of his cattle, complete with funny captions.

Ronda Lyon dabbed her eyes and repeatedly embraced her son, Bart, while Cheri Lyon read the statement. Heemstra, who was not shackled, looked on without reaction. Cheri Lyon also repeatedly cited Heemstra's lack of remorse, and angrily targeted his family and supporters. She glanced back at Heemstra's parents and said: "Children learn what they're taught," while referring to Heemstra's character. Heemstra addressed the courtroom softly with one sentence as he did at his 2003 sentencing: "For everyone who has sent letters and prayer over the last four years, thank you." Heemstra was taken to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale.

He later will be transferred to another prison. By ABBY SIMONS REGISTER STAFF WRITER Indianola, la. Rodney Heemstra left a Warren County courthouse May 1 1 en route to a 10-year prison term wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit, but the likelihood that he won't wear the suit very long tore at family members of Tom Lyon, whom Heemstra twice has been convicted of shooting to death in 2003. "No, I'm not satisfied. I don't know how you murder someone, change your story 20 times and then get a short sentence that will be cut in half.

He'll be out by 2008," said Ronda Lyon, widow of Milo farmer Tom Lyon. Her comments reflected the widespread belief that the 10-year sentence Heemstra was given May I I is likely to be cut to as little as 18 months when time already served and good behavior are considered. Heemstra's camp had a more favorable view. Speaking publicly for the first time, Heemstra's defense attorney Joseph Hrvol said: "We thought we had a good chance at a not-guilty verdict, but the verdict that came in was satisfactory, although it wasn't our ultimate goal." Hrvol had previously filed for dismissal of the jury's verdict, but District Judge Gary Kimes rejected the motion. Hrvol said it is uncertain whether they will appeal the voluntary manslaughter conviction.

Heemstra, 48, was sentenced for voluntary RODNEY WHITETHE REGISTER Shawn Bentler testifies May 1 1 during his trial. He is accused of murdering family members. JOHN GAPS lllTHE REGISTER Rodney Heemstra faces the courtroom to speak before being sentenced May 1 1 in Indianola. Russell Overlin learned May 1 1 in Des Moines that he will spend the rest of his life in prison. a -slaughter for shooting Lyon, 52, on a gravel road following a Naomi Overlin Gilbert Overlin at the house by officers.

Bentler's lawyer, D.J. Arbabha, contended Shawn Bentler did not have the means, motive or opportunity to commit the killings. Prosecutors did not investigate other possible suspects after hearing the 911 recording, and they failed to do specific tests that could have corroborated Bentler's story, Arbabha said in his summation. "Sandra Bentler's white Tahoe was not subjected to fingerprinting," Arbabha said. "The officer said it would have ruined the white Tahoe.

I'm sorry, but are we going to ruin a defendant's life?" "Shawn, don't!" in the background. Seconds later, Shayne says, "Shawn, no!" and screams before the phone line goes dead. "That 14-year-old kid is absolutely terrified," Brown told the judge. "The 91 1 call is extremely powerful evidence. To acquit Shawn Bentler is to ignore the 911 call." Other evidence cited by prosecutors includes Sandra Bentler's blood on Shawn Bentler's socks; records connecting the murder weapon, a rifle, to a gun dealer who used to sell guns to Mike Bentler; and Shawn Bentler's cell phone, which was found case.

These were terrible crimes." The couple's relativi, directly or through I a victim's services spok-person, gave statements in court that chastised the man, who they said had no reason to lash out. Sandra Gilson read a letter from five of Naomi Overlin's grandchildren in California. Younger relatives, they wrote, "will not have the memories we have of picking gooseberries for Grandma's gooseberry pies or watching Grandpa play horseshoes." Sandra Bowman, Naomi Overlin's sister, was more blunt in her letter. a Montgomery County jury. Because Heemstra already served three years in prison following his 2003 first-degree murder conviction for the same incident, legal experts say he is likely to be released from prison in as little as 18 months.

Heemstra was sentenced to life imprisonment following the murder conviction, which was overturned last fall. At the May 1 1 sentencing, Tom Lyon's daughter, Cheri Lyon, was the only family member to address Heemstra. Her voice and hands shook as she read a prepared statement. She accused Heemstra of lying not conirunia-TomLyn tion. Heemstra then dragged Lyon's body with his pickup truck and dumped it in a cistern.

Lyon's body was discovered the next day. Heemstra has always contended he shot Lyon in self-defense. In a tense 30-minute hearing May 11, Judge Gary Kimes imposed the maximum allowable sentence for Heemstra's April 30 voluntary manslaughter conviction by father's farm. Naomi Overlin, he said, "was still alive when I put her in the well." A life sentence in Iowa means an inmate will die in prison with no chance of parole. Judge Eliza Ovrom acknowledged that back-to-back sentences might be "more form than substance," but said, "1 think that it is appropriate in this V4 I.