(Note: This version, with more information and details, replaces a story published earler today.)
BATAVIA, NY -- "Joe Benaquist was my friend," Scott F. Doll said today during testimony in his own murder trial.
The statement came after Defense Attorney Paul Cambria asked if Doll -- who claims to have been with Benaquist when he took his last breath -- had ever seen anybody die before. Doll said, yes, a family member. He then began to tear up.
As Doll fought back the tears, Cambria asked, "Did you kill Joseph Benaquist?"
Struggling not to cry, Doll said, "No. I did not."
Cambria took a step from the podium and quietly said to District Attorney Lawrence Friedman, "your witness."
The 48-year-old Doll is charged with murder, 2nd. He's accused of beating Joseph Benaquist to death in the driveway of Benaquist's Pembroke home the evening of Feb. 16, 2009.
At 9:25, Tuesday morning, Doll took the stand in his own defense, and by the time he stepped down at 12:12 p.m. he had been asked a range of questions from Cambria and Friedman that covered his background, finances, car deals with Benaquist and his version of events from the night of the murder.
Background
Scott F. Doll was employed at the Wende Correctional Facility as a supervisor in the Special Needs unit, which is a segregated portion of the prison for inmates with IQs of 90 or less.
He earned $75,000 a year straight time from the State Department of Corrections.
On the night of the murder, he was three months shy of his 25th year in corrections. At 25 years, he would become eligible for retirement.
Under questioning from Friedman, Doll acknowledged that a felony conviction could lead to his termination, and if he lost his job for any other reason prior to reaching 25 years of service, Doll would lose his retirement benefits.
In the time period leading up to Benaquist's death, Doll said, he had been working extra hours to increase the amount of earnings used in calculating his retirement pay.
As a corrections officer, Doll went through a number of training courses. Such courses were provided at least annually. They included training in emergency response procedure, first aid, use of force, unarmed defense tactics, crisis intervention (Doll said, "I don't recall that one") and baton training, which Doll said used to be taught annually until the DoC realized too many people were getting hurt.
Asked by Friedman if he could use a baton in his job assignment, Doll said, "Yes, if I carried one."
He said the training consisted of how to use the baton to jab people, to knock out the back of their knee and as a defense weapon.
"They always trained us," Doll said, "don't go for the head."
SF Enterprises had always been a side line, Doll said, but in working toward retirement, Doll said he wasn't paying as much attention to his car dealership.
"It got to the point where I really didn’t care about the business anymore," Doll said.
Several of Doll's friends and family members used SF Enterprises to gain access to the Adesa auto auction, Doll said. The one access card mentioned that might be shared was registered to his son, Brandon Doll. Brandon's card was in Benaquist's wallet the night of the murder.
To help facilitate his son, Josh Doll, and others using SF Enterprises for auto transactions, Doll pre-signed a number of documents in his MV 50 book.
"Josh had access, whoever needed it had access, everybody had access to the books," Doll said. "Was it right as far as the DMV? Probably not, but that’s the way I did it."
The 66-year-old Benaquist, Doll testified, had a fascination with cars. He bought and sold many cars through SF Enterprises over the years and would volunteer to go to the auction with Scott to help out or just hang out.
The two men met in the mid 1990s when they were both work-party supervisors at the Wyoming Correctional Facility. They worked the same shift and would usually have coffee together in the morning, lunch together at noon and talk as they left for work at the end of the day.
They became friends socially, with Doll, he said, inviting Joe Benaquist over for family gatherings and other social events.
Finances
In February 2009, Scott Doll had somewhere in the neighborhood of $27,000 to $28,000 in personal debt.
It was debt, he said, he agreed to take responsibility for when he and his ex-wife were divorced. He said most of the debt was hers.
At some point, he decided the debt was too much and he wanted to reduce the burden, so he contacted a debt resolution company.
That company advised Doll, he testified, to stop making monthly payments to the credit card companies. The lenders would be more apt to negotiate away some of the debt if he wasn't making payments, he said.
The company told Doll that they could reduce his debt burden by 25 to 40 percent.
Before the company would negotiate with lenders on his behalf, they needed to be paid up front, Doll said. To that end, and for perhaps as long as a year on a 32-month agreement, Doll was paying the company $457.55 per month.
Friedman wanted to know if payments were being made on Doll's behalf to creditors, and with much sparring on this point, Doll said he didn't believe the company was paying off debts. "They wanted their money first," he said.
Doll wasn't sure if he owed another payment to the credit company in mid-February 2009.
Friedman's questions left the impression that a payment had been missed.
Phone records indicate the company called Doll at 5:16 p.m., Feb. 16.
"You didn't answer the call, did you?" Friedman asked.
"I don't recall."
"You hadn't made your monthly payment, had you?"
"I don't recall."
Friedman had a document that was apparently a record of all the interactions between Doll and the credit resolution company. He used it to show Doll that Doll had agreed to a 32-month contract with the company.
When it came time for Cambria to ask Doll more questions, Cambria turned to page four of the document and asked about the Feb. 16 call. Apparently, there was entry on the document related to a possible conversation between Doll and the credit company on that day.
But Friedman objected to the question -- the actual document had not been introduced into evidence and Doll had already said he didn't recall talking with a company rep at that time, meaning the document could not be used to refresh his memory -- and Judge Robert C. Noonan sustained the objection.
Doll also had some financial issues with the Adesa auction.
On Dec. 21, 2008, Doll was notified that his authorization to buy and sell through Adesa was terminated.
"That was because your dealer's license had expired," Friedman said.
"That's not correct," Doll shot back.
Doll explained that Adesa asked to see his renewed license, which he provided.
On Jan. 5, Doll's account was put on financial hold and again on Jan. 30.
Doll said it was because he hadn't made payments on his credit cards, which came to the attention of Adesa. He said Adesa asked for proof that he was working with a credit resolution company.
He didn't, however, recall actually talking with the credit resolution company about the need for proof, or actually providing it to Adesa.
On re-examination, Cambria used the credit resolution company document Friedman previously provided to ask Doll about a Feb. 3 call with the company in which he requested such proof. Doll said he didn't recall the conversation.
Friedman also questioned Doll about a Chevy Malibu that Benaquist had owned and that Doll put back on his floorplan, getting a $4,600 check from the finance company at the time. The check, Friedman said in questioning, was supposed to go toward payments on a Pontiac G6 that Benaquist had apparently purchased on the SF Enterprises floorplan, but "you didn't use it for that, did you?" Friedman asked.
Doll said he deposited the money in his business account.
"Before that deposit, you were more than $2,000 over drawn, weren't you?" Friedman asked.
"According to this," Doll said, pointing to a bank document provided by Friedman.
Later, Friedman would note that Doll had written a $2,200 check on the business account the same day he received the $4,600 from the floorplan credit agency.
Car Deals
Four cars have played an evidentiary role in the Scott Doll murder trial:
- A 2006 Chevy Malibu
- A 2008 Pontiac G6
- A Grand Caravan
- A motor home
The Malibu was bought on the SF Enterprises floorplan in 2006 for Joseph Benaquist. Doll couldn't recall if he went with Benaquist to the auction to buy the car.
Benaquist did eventually pay for the car and used it as his own personal vehicle for some time.
When Benaquist decided he no longer wanted the Malibu, Doll tried selling it for him. He tried putting ads in the newspaper and placing it on his "lot" (which was the parking lot of his brother's grocery store in Corfu), and twice SF Enterprises tried auctioning it off in Adesa, but it hadn't sold.
Benaquist needed the money from the sale because he had bought at Pontiac G6 at the Adesa auction. The day he purchased it, he gave Doll a check for $10,000.
The money was intended to pay off, according to Doll, a motor home that Benaquist purchased some time before, and the balance applied to the G6.
As for the partial payment on the G6, Doll said while being initially questioned by Cambria, that he didn't worry about Benaquist paying his debts.
"I never really worried about it with him," Doll said. "He always said, 'I’m good for it. I’m good for it,' and I'd known him for years. Whatever arrangements he wanted to make with me, he made."
Friedman struck a skeptical note about whether Benaquist owed money for the motor home.
"If I told you there was no reference in the floorplan to the RV, wouldn't that surprise you?" Friedman asked.
(Honestly, our notes on his response are ambiguous, so we can't provide Doll's response to this question.)
Friedman wanted to know if Doll gave Benaquist the documents for the RV and Doll said he wouldn't do that until the vehicle was paid off on the floorplan.
Benaquist, Doll said, used dealer plates to drive the RV to Tennessee and sent the dealer plates back to him via Federal Express.
On re-examination, Cambria asked Doll if Benaquist's son, Michael Benaquist, had testified that Joe Benaquist purchased an RV from Doll, and Doll said he had.
SF Enterprises was also involved in a purchase of a Dodge Grand Caravan for Mark Kobal. The original Caravan purchased didn't meet Kobal's specifications, but it was registered in his name.
In order to get Kobal the Grand Caravan he wanted, SF Enterprises purchased one through Adesa using the floorplan. But because it wasn't fully paid for, Doll provided Kobal with a temporary registration and let him take the van.
At one point, the auction house finance company came looking for the van since it technically was supposed to remain in Doll's inventory, but the van wasn't on his lot.
Either Brandon Doll, Kobal or Josh Doll -- Scott Doll couldn't remember who -- drove the van to the finance company at the Adesa lot to show it was still in possession of SF Enterprises.
At one point, Friedman produced a bill of sale for the Grand Caravan, for which the Malibu was used as a trade-in on the purchase.
Friedman asked Doll if the handwriting was his and Doll said he wasn't sure.
Friedman stood back from the witness stand aghast, "You don't recognize your own handwriting?"
Doll said he wanted to be sure.
"Do you recognize your handwriting?"
"It appears to be."
"That's your signature?"
"It appears to be."
During the line of questioning, Friedman said, "You just testified about the history of the 2006 Malibu and now you can't remember if you traded it in on the Grand Caravan?"
Doll said there was an explanation for the transaction, but Friedman ignored his statement and studied his notes on the podium.
On re-examination, Cambria asked for the explanation. Doll said that the finance company, AFC, required a receipt to floorplan a car not bought at auction.
"They're basically telling you to justify why they can give you the check," Doll said.
The Night of the Murder
On Feb. 16, 2009, Scott Doll got off work at 3 p.m., he testified.
On cross examination, Friedman jumped right to phone records and noted that Doll made a call or received a call at 3:01 p.m. From or who the call was made to wasn't specified. In previous testimony, the first call mentioned for Scott Doll's phone that day was a 4:01 p.m. call to the Adesa auction house.
Doll said he was supposed to meet Joseph Benaquist at Adesa some time between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
That was a Monday. There would be an auto auction on Tuesday and Benaquist intended to put the Pontiac G6 up for auction.
Doll testified that he waited for about 30 minutes, sometimes standing outside of the Ford Windstar he was driving, to have a smoke.
"My mother didn't like me smoking in her van," Doll said.
He agreed to meet Benaquist at the auction to remove the plates -- which is why he was carrying a screwdriver that night -- and to help Benaquist clean out the G6, Doll said.
Based on past experience, Doll said, Joe Benaquist didn't have a good track record of cleaning out all of his personal belongings of cars he was returning to the auction.
When Joe didn't show, Scott got back on Route 5 and headed to Pembroke, figuring he would stop by his buddy's house to find out why he didn't show up.
When Doll arrived at the home on Knapp Road, he noticed a faint light coming from under a car that he now figures was the Nissan Altima. As he got closer, he saw Benaquist in the driveway, he said, struggling to get up.
He parked the Windstar at the bottom of the driveway and went to his buddy's side, he said.
"My first instinct was to help him lay down," Doll said.
Benaquist had been severely beaten, according to previous testimony. He had multiple skull fractures and lacerations to his head and the scene was very bloody.
On cross examination, Friedman asked about Doll's statement that he wanted to "comfort" Benaquist, asking in a mocking tone, "You were going to make him comfortable, is that your testimony?"
"i don't know if that's the right word," Doll said. "If somebody is bleeding, you want them to not struggle so much."
Friedman asked about his first-aid training.
"I don't think anything came to my mind as far as first-aid training," Doll said. "I just didn't know what the heck was going on."
As Friedman tried to draw out of Doll his exact motions -- what he did physically with Benaquist -- Doll said he was trying to get Benaquist to lay down so "he wouldn't hurt himself."
Again, in a mocking tone, Friedman said, "You didn't want Joe Benaquist to hurt himself?"
"I guess that's that I was thinking at the time," Doll said.
As he held his buddy, Doll told Cambria during his direct testimony, he kept asking Benaquist what happened.
"I don't know how many times I said, 'what's happened?" Doll said. "He was mumbling and the only thing I made out was, 'The boy."
Doll paused.
"'The boy."
Benaquist struggled, Doll said, until he stopped breathing.
"I kept saying, 'Joe? Joe?," Doll said. "He didn't respond."
"I got up," Doll continued. "I didn't know what to do. I was scared."
Doll said he started to walk toward the house, but notice the door was open, well not open, but cracked open.
"I was thinking, 'I've got to get the hell out of here. I didn't know what was going on," Doll said.
On cross examination, Doll said he didn't know why he started toward the house.
"I've gone over this and over this for the past 15 months," Doll said. "I don't know why I was going to the house. All I remember is that going toward the house and seeing the door open and being terrified."
At that point, Doll said, he decided to leave the scene.
"I was trying to decipher what I had just seen and heard. I kept saying to myself, 'I've got to do something.' I drove up to the corner thinking, 'I've got to do something.'"
Doll parked the minivan -- backing it in between two already parked cars, he told Friedman -- and got out.
He doesn't remember what he did next. He would be found by a deputy carrying a jack and lug wrench from the minivan, as well as a screwdriver, and his bloody gloves would be found on a car parked next to the minivan.
As he walked north on North Lake Road, Doll said Benaquist's alleged final words came back to him and he thought, "Oh my God, is my son involved in this?"
At that point, Doll started to tear up.
As he walked, a Sheriff's deputy pulled his patrol vehicle up behind Doll.
"I turned around and something fell out of my pocket," Doll said.
The deputy asked him what fell out of his pocket, "It's a jack," Doll said. He picked it up and handed it to the deputy.
Doll said he had no idea why he was carrying a jack or where it came from. He said he didn't recall taking it out of the Windstar.
"Do you know why you told the deputy you were out for a cardio work out?" Cambria asked Doll.
"I wanted to buy time and figure out what was happening," Doll said. "I needed some help to help me decide what was going on because I wasn't thinking clearly."
Deputy Jason Diehl previously testified that when he first interviewed Doll, he asked about the blood on Doll's coveralls and Doll said, "I butcher deer."
Under questioning from Friedman, Doll said he had three or four pairs of coveralls in his garage, and that he does, in fact, butcher deer. The same coveralls he might use in butchering deer he also might wear to work on cars.
Doll said when first questioned by Diehl he didn't realize he had fresh blood on him.
Later, when questioned by Deputy Patrick Reeves, he did realize he had blood on his coveralls, but he doesn't recall what he told Reeves about the blood on the coveralls or the van.
Doll said deputies kept him sitting in a patrol car at the corner of Main and North Lake roads in Pembroke for hours. His requests to call either an attorney or his son were ignored, he said.
"I kept asking, 'what's going on?'" Doll said. "'What's happening?' I also asked to speak to a lawyer, because I needed some help to clear my mind and figure out what I needed to do here. I wasn't thinking too clearly."
Eventually, Doll was transferred to the Sheriff's Office on Park Road, where he was placed in a holding room, changed into orange jail garb and shackled.
While he was shackled, his friend and former fellow corrections officer Teresa Zelaszkiewicz arrived and was allowed to talk with Doll.
Investigator Kris Kautz listened in on the conversation and has testified that Doll made some incriminating statements, but Doll testified that he doesn't remember the details of the conversation.
"I only know what I was feeling at the time," Doll said. "I needed to talk to a lawyer. I just thought I would get this cleared up. I didn't think this situation would go this far. I thought they would investigate the possibility of somebody else doing this."
