FORT PIERCE — Former Indian River County firefighter and Melbourne police officer Otto Lenke faces a possible punishment of death after a jury on Friday convicted him of capital murder and arson charges related to the brutal 2021 homicide of Richard Benson at his business Fast Frank’s Cycle Concepts, in Fort Pierce.
Benson’s charred body was discovered inside his motorcycle repair shop just after 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2021, when St. Lucie County Fire District crews responded to the burning building in the 800 block of South Third Street just north of the main police station.
About 20 minutes earlier, the 57-year-old had been shot three times, including in the back, and his body had been saturated with an accelerant and set on fire. Three .40-caliber cartridge casings, and two empty cans of paint thinner were found at the scene. One can was “Klean Strip Denatured Alcohol.”
A St. Lucie County jury seated on May 4 deliberated just under three hours May 8 before finding Lenke, 66, of Sebastian, guilty of first-degree murder with a firearm and first-degree arson of a structure, according to court records and Assistant State Attorney Brandon White, who prosecuted the case with Assistant State Attorney Justin Cormier.
Records show Lenke served as a Melbourne police officer from December 1980 to December 1995 before he “medically retired.” He joined the Indian River County Fire Department in 1999 and resigned as a firefighter paramedic in May 2016 from Indian River County Fire Rescue after 16 years, according to TCPalm archives.
Lenke, who maintained his innocence throughout the prosecution, told investigators in 2021 he was not in Fort Pierce the day of the murder and did not know Benson. His defense team didn’t call any witnesses before resting Thursday and Lenke declined to take the stand.
A surveillance video that recorded the horrific crime inside Benson’s shop was played repeatedly during Lenke’s trial this week.
“The evidence in this case has ripped off the cloak of innocence,” White told jurors after the state rested its case Thursday.
“The fact that (Lenke) had the motive, the fact that he had the gun and he threw it from the Wabasso Bridge, the fact that his car was used,” White added, “all of that points to one thing and rips that cloak of innocence off.”
The same panel of five men and seven women that voted unanimously to convict Lenke were ordered to return May 18 to begin a penalty phase to determine his sentence, which can only be life in prison without parole or execution.
Circumstantial evidence
Lenke was jailed on murder charges two days after Benson’s death after investigators developed circumstantial evidence that tied him to the crime — including his movements tracked before and after the murder, his car photographed along the route from Sebastian to Fort Pierce and back, and the recovery of a .40-caliber Glock firearm authorities found in the Indian River Lagoon near the Wabasso Bridge.
Investigators were unable to prove it was the same gun used to kill Benson, in part, White said, because it had been cut up. But it was the same caliber handgun and was found by divers after Lenke’s phone was tracked to the same location just hours after the murder.
And Lenke’s gray Pontiac Bonneville matched the sedan seen on various surveillance cameras up and down U.S. 1 between Sebastian and Fort Pierce.
When Lenke was arrested, he had shaved his arms, which White told jurors he did after he killed Benson and set him on fire.
“Those hairs were singed,” he said.
Lenke also was identified by a former Sebastian girlfriend as the man seen in Benson’s shop on video wearing a long sleeve blue shirt, black helmet and blue jeans as he fired once at Benson, then a second shot. Then a third shot at “point blank” range. “Klean Strip Denatured Alcohol” was poured over his torso and lit up with a blue lighter.
Lisa Diggs, who was dating Benson at the time of his death, testified at trial, and told investigators on Feb. 17, 2021 the man in the video was Lenke, she had known him for 10 years and she recognized his walk and body shape.
Lenke’s legs are “bowed” and he had a knee replacement. He’d been a friend after she lost her husband to cancer seven years earlier. Lenke had a motorcycle, a black helmet and carried a gun everywhere, she said. Eventually, Diggs told Lenke she didn’t want to date him — news he didn’t seem to take well.
She said Lenke had built her a wooden boat when they first started seeing each other and about a month before Benson’s murder, she asked if she could use it — but not with him, as she was dating someone else.
That information, according to White, is what set Lenke’s murderous plan into action.
“He has been replaced by Richard Benson,” White told jurors. “She treated him like a door mat; he killed her new boyfriend.”
White noted how Lenke’s “unique walk” mimicked the man on video shooting Benson.
“It’s a pretty unique walk, pretty unique body shape, pretty unique helmet,” he stressed.
White admitted detectives never found the same helmet Lenke wore when he killed Benson. But jurors had seen a picture of one just like it at Lenke’s home, he reminded the panel.
“He had that helmet. He wore that helmet to conceal his face. Why? Because it’s a planned-out murder; he knows exactly what he’s going to do,” White said. “Because here’s the thing … he’s a former cop. He knows what the cops are going to do to investigate the case. He’s smart. All of his actions, every single thing he does is deliberate, planned out, and thought out.”
Penalty phase
Because a jury convicted Lenke of capital murder, state law requires the same jurors to undergo a second legal proceeding to weigh aggravating factors that prosecutors will argue support execution or mitigating circumstances that advocate for life in prison. Mitigating factors don’t excuse the crime but can be considered in determining a sentence.
To determine whether capital punishment is warranted, the state is required to identify the aggravating circumstances, or reasons why a sentence of death is legal and appropriate.
Prosecutors have cited three statutory aggravators related to Benson’s murder including:
∎The killing was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
∎The felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
∎The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice in the commission of, or attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to commit, any: robbery; sexual battery; aggravated child abuse; abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult resulting in great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement; arson; burglary; kidnapping; aircraft piracy; or unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb.
Prosecutors weigh such aggravators against any potential mitigating evidence presented by the defense, such as substance abuse, neurological troubles or diminished mental health.
For a judge to impose the death penalty, a sentence of death must be recommended by a supermajority, or at least an 8-4 vote by jurors.
(This story was updated with video.)
Melissa E. Holsman is a freelance reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Jury convicts former Florida rescue worker of murder in bike shop
Reporting by Melissa E. Holsman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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