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A large tree has fallen at 2345 Beckwith Road in North Pembroke, between Slusher and North Pembroke roads. Traffic is being shut off to the road until it can be cleared.

A large tree and wires have fallen into the roadway at 6683 Warboys Road in Byron. Fire units in Byron and South Byron have been notified.

Wires have fallen into the roadway at Transit and Edgerton roads in Byron. Fire departments in Byron and South Byron are responding.

A large tree has fallen into a garage at 10 Prospect Ave. in the City of Batavia. No wires are believed to be affected. Batavia Fire is responding and will be using a chainsaw to remove the tree.

Trees are down blocking the roadway at 3171 Dodson Road, between Attica and Griswold roads. Wires are possibly down, too. Darien Fire and Corfu have responded and will be using chain saws to clear the wood.

It was after the Sheriff's lead investigator talked with Josh Doll, that Sheriff's deputies went to Joseph Benaquist's house and found him lying, bludgeoned and frosted over, in a pool of blood in his snow-covered driveway.

In Genesee County Court yesterday afternoon, the testimony of Investigator Kris Kautz included not only details about blood evidence and the crime scene, but also what happened after photos were taken of murder suspect Scott Doll at the Sheriff's station.

At some point in the wee hours of Feb. 17, 2009, Josh Doll called the Sheriff's station.

"He was curious as to what's was going on," Kautz said. "He asked where his father was that night, and I said I didn't know."

After talking with Josh, Kautz said he notified another officer of a friend of Josh's in the area, which was either Joseph Benaquist himself, or someone who knew both men.

Benaquist's body was found by Sheriff's Deputies at 1:33 a.m.

When questioned by Doll's attorney Paul Cambria, Kautz said he did not tell Doll that his son had called.

At 3:35 a.m., Kautz was told that two women were at the station to see Doll. About 15 minutes later, Doll's girlfriend and a former department of corrections coworker were taken to Kautz's office.

The former coworker wanted to speak with Doll, and she was allowed to do so, escorted by Kautz. Doll sat on a bench at a table in the center of a stark, 12-by-8-foot hearing room. The visitor stood a few feet away on one side and Kautz the same distance on the opposite side, ready to take notes.

Deputy Patrick Reeves, who had testified earlier on Thursday, was in an adjoining control room. The doors were open. Kautz noted the three-minute conversation thusly:

"I was there but I didn't do it," Doll told the woman.

"Did something happen in your head?" she asked.

"No"

"Did it involve an animal?"

"No"

"Tell me there's no dead body."

"I can't say."

"No matter what, you get a lawyer just the same," she said.

"Let the chips fall were they may," he replied. "I believe I'll be in jail for sure. It doesn't matter what lawyer I get. I'll get what I deserve, I guess."

(Reeves earlier testified that his report did not reflect what went on at the station house, and that he didn't hear the whole conversation. But he did hear the part where Doll says "I'm going to jail.")

The accused killer still had not been permitted to contact a lawyer.

Cambria asked Kautz about the investigation in the area where the body was found. Kautz said he was aware that officers from the City of Batavia and State Police, in addition to Sheriff's deputies, searched the area initially over a two-day period. But he wasn't present throughout that time.

Among Kautz's other disclosures was that there was no blood on the lone key found in Doll's pocket. He did not inspect the firefighter's head covering Doll had on when walking down North Lake Road. In March, Benaquist's home was searched, but Kautz was unsure how many times that was done. The victim's mobile phone was never sent in for forensic testing. No one looked to see if Benaquist had heirs, which could possibly have shed new light on the case.

Nor did Kautz attend the autopsy or personally search Benaquist's house or Doll's house, or interview any of Doll's stepsons, or investigate finances.

But Kautz did know that there were 19 blood specks on a vehicle photo taken at the crime scene. That there was a bloody footprint, and bloody leather work gloves were on the vehicle adjacent to the blood-smeared Ford Windstar minivan driven by Doll. That his size-10, white, Starter-brand sneakers were in poor condition and bloody and those overalls were bloody, too.

Photos of this were shown to the jury and entered into evidence. One of the photos of Doll's face with three flecks of blood on it was left up on the projector, larger than life on the wall, well after being shown to the jury.

During the jury's recess, an annoyed Doll asked co-attorney, Daniel Killelea, why are they showing all those bloody photos?

The jury already knew he was at the scene and, according to Cambria's opening statement, holding the mortally wounded Benaquist as he drew his last breath.

Is it grandstanding? Doll asked.

"It's puffery," Killelea replied.

The camouflage overalls Scott Doll wore the night of Feb. 16, 2009 were stained with human blood, not deer blood.

His knees were so saturated that it soaked through his correctional officer work pants and stained his skin. One of the excuses he offered when questioned by a Sheriff's Deputy that night was that he butchered deer.

When first approached by a deputy, he was carrying a jack and lug wrench in his pockets, and offered contradictory statements about what he was doing walking on North Lake Road in Pembroke.

Late morning and afternoon testimony on the first day of Doll's trial -- over the killing of Joseph Benaquist in an alleged business-partnership deal gone bad -- put the accused in the vicinity of the murder scene covered with blood and unable to fully explain the situation to deputies.

Deputy James Diehl was dispatched to Pembroke after a report of a suspicious person. Doll was northbound on the east shoulder of the roadway, wearing overalls and a white firefighter's hood sock, which covered his face and head except his eyes.

Diehl testified that Doll had bulges in both pants pockets. The officer pulled up within 20 feet behind him and an object fell out of Doll's left front pocket, onto the ground in front of a mailbox.

It was a tire jack, but he made no attempt to pick it up and continued walking toward the deputy's vehicle as he was motioned to do. Doll pulled a tire lug wrench out of his right front pocket to show the officer, too.

Diehl asked the Corfu resident why he was out walking in Pembroke. Doll replied that he had parked his car at a nearby repair garage and was taking tools to a friend's house. He was walking there in order to get a cardio workout, because he had a doctor's appointment the very next day and needed to lower his cholesterol and heart rate. He wore overalls because it was cold.

The deputy noticed "what appeared to be wet blood marks" on Doll's clothing. When asked about the bloody overalls and white sneakers, Doll said "I butcher deer."

Doll retrieved the tire jack, emptied his pockets -- a wallet, a lone car key, some Seneca cigarettes, a green Bic lighter and a screwdriver. Doll asked to be taken back to his van.

Things weren't adding up, Diehl said, and he told Doll he was taking him into custody until there were some answers. The deputy cuffed Doll, put him in the back seat, and the tools on the front seat, so they wouldn't scratch up the upholstery.

They drove to where the van was parked. (It was actually his mother Audrey's vehicle, which Scott was driving because his daughter had borrowed his truck.)

Pulling into the repair shop, the deputy saw a red Ford Windstar mini-van, a blue van and a white van. He noticed bloody work gloves, palms up, on the hood of the blue van, blood spatters on the door on the Windstar and its driver's seat.

On cross-examination, attorney Paul Cambria asked if Doll tried to flee after the object fell out of his pocket on North Lake Road. Diehl answered no. Cambria asked if Doll retrieved the object when asked to -- "he didn't try to throw it in a field." Diehl said no, he retrieved it. When Doll was asked for identification, he provided it, correct? Cambria asked. Yes, Diehl replied.

Cambria asked if Diehl had noticed bloody footprints in the snow, blood on the front headlight of the Windstar, along the driver's side, to the back lights. Yes, the deputy said.

Cambria asked if Diehl heard Doll ask for an attorney. Diehl said no, but he was told that Doll had indeed asked for one. Cambria asked if, when cuffing Doll and putting him into the patrol car, he had read him his Miranda warnings? No, was the answer.

(The Miranda warnings are a recitation of a person's Constitutional rights once taken into custody.)

Next on the witness stand was Deputy Patrick Reeves, a 13-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department and a Pembroke native. He knows Doll, used to work for the Doll family at the Super Duper and later the Jubilee Market. Reeves was shift commander the night in question and met up with the two men at the car repair shop.

Reeves said there were no lights on in the parking lot. Doll's coveralls were unzipped and his hair was disheveled. He asked Doll were he was headed and Doll said to see friends, but couldn't say where they lived. He told him about doing cardio, but Reeves noticed his shoes, which were so worn out they were practically soleless, were not appropriate for that activity in that kind of weather.

Reeves shined his flashlight on Doll and saw flecks of blood on his cheek, nose and on his knees, which Doll said was "old blood." The officer knows the Pembroke area intimately, knows about hunting. He pressed Doll about butchering deer and Doll said "It's not deer blood."

At that point, Reeves said his heart was pounding.

"I was getting scared," Reeves said.

He asked Doll if there was someone out there who was injured and needed an ambulance.

"Pat, you know me better than that," Doll replied.

Reeves then noticed various "dings and dents" around the bloodied vehicle and a single set of footprints and called an investigator to the scene.

"Things weren't adding up in my mind," Reeves said. "I thought maybe he was afraid of killing a deer out of season and losing his hunting license. I told him not to worry about that. Who cares?"

Doll replied, "Listen, I got three months to retire, Pat, I don't want to talk about it."

Reeves observed blood marks on the bottoms of Doll's shoes.

"It was clear to me that there was more to this, so I walked him back to the patrol car," Reeves testified.

District Attorney Lawrence Friedman asked if Doll said he wanted an attorney.

"I don't want to talk about the blood anymore," Reeves recalled Doll told him. "... Do what you gotta do."

So Reeves asked if there was anyone he wanted to speak to and Doll said an attorney. But because Reeves remained concerned there might be a person needing immediate medical attention, he continued his line of questioning without getting Doll an attorney, and felt legally justified in doing so.

Cambria asked if Reeves and Diehl later searched the roadways looking for any evidence. They had, Reeves said, noting they looked off the shoulders, in the ditches, in nearby brush and, in some places, up to the trees.

Cambria asked if Reeves was aware, that the few houses that were in the rural area had their garbage cans out. Yes, said the deputy. Did you look in any of the garbage cans for evidence? Cambria asked. No, only in front of one house, Reeves replied, and nothing was found.

Did Reeves recall being asked if Doll said "I didn't do it"? Reeves, said no, he couldn't recall that.

But Cambria produced testimony from Reeves on a pre-trial transcript, page 100, where Reeves states "He told me he didn't do it."

Under questioning, Reeves acknowledged that he concluded the bloody footprints were Doll's.

When Doll asked for an attorney, Cambria asked, "did you give him a phone?"

No, said the deputy.

"Did you give him any opportunity to get an attorney?"

No, said the deputy.

"The request was ignored, was it not?" Cambria asked.

"At that time," Reeves replied.

Doll, who turns 48 on May 16, was flanked by his attorneys during the testimony and appeared calm and attentive, wearing a charcoal-gray, pinstriped suit. The jury of five men and 12 women were equally attentive.

Courtroom sketch from today's proceedings depicts D.A. Lawrence Friedman questioning Investigator Kris Kautz about blood evidence. The sketch was drawn by Colin Dentino exclusively for The Batavian. To view a larger version of the sketch, click here.

A nonemergency response from the Oakfield Fire Dept. was requested a couple of minutes ago for a youth who is not injured but stuck in a swing nonetheless.

The incident is at the Town of Oakfield Park at 37 Drake St.

Update: 6:03 p.m.: Oakfield back in service. The child was freed from the swing.

A big boom truck has struck the overhead bridge westbound on Route 5, Main Street, in the Village of Le Roy.

"It took the boom right off," says a responder.

The boom is in the roadway, completely blocking traffic. Le Roy Fire has been dispatched to handle traffic and as a precaution.

The driver has unknown, if any, injuries.

UPDATE: Photo above was submitted by a reader.

The driver of a semi-truck temporarily got his rig hung up on a railroad crossing on Church Street in Le Roy. It is no longer blocking the tracks, where it completely tore off the crossing arm, which is now dangling from telephone wires above.

The big rig, out of Omaha, Nebraska, left the Southern Railroad extension with "very little left that is usable," according to the Le Roy police officer on the scene. The railroad has been notified and a rep is en route, with an ETA of about 20 minutes.

It's unknown whether a train will be traveling through there or not in the meanwhile.

No one was injured and no other vehicles were involved.

(UPDATE: 11:45 a.m.): Southern Railroad has issued a "stop and protect order" for the demolished crossing. Trains will be required to stop. Road flares are in place to alert people to the danger.

A male pedestrian is "down, off the road" after being struck by a motor vehicle on Main Street Road in Stafford. He is seriously injured. Mercy Flight was called, then cancelled, and now is back in service, ready to land.

Village of Le Roy, towns of Batavia and Stafford responding. Traffic control is under way.

UPDATE (11:56 a.m.): CPR is being performed on the victim.

UPDATE (12:07): The man, described as elderly, is being transported to UMMC via ambulance.

A car accident at the corner of Main Street and and Weber Avenue is reported in the Village of Oakfield. Two children are passengers and an ambulence is en route to evaluate their well being.