pembroke

BATAVIA, NY -- A jury of 12 Genesee County residents has found Scott F. Doll guilty of murder, 2nd.

The jury began deliberations around 2 p.m., Wednesday and took a recess at 5 p.m. The jury returned to deliberations at 9 a.m. and notified Judge Robert C. Noonan that it reached a verdict just before 4 p.m.

MORE TK

BATAVIA, NY -- On Wednesday, Paul Cambria, defense attorney for Scott Doll, and District Attorney Lawrence Friedman, presented their best arguments for guilt or innocence to a jury of 12 Genesee County residents.

Below are what they said about some of the key points and facts in the case.

Motivation
Cambria argued that the People were unable to make a solid case for Doll to have any motivation to kill Joseph Benaquist.

"No one family member ever came in to say there was a dispute between Joe and Scott," Cambria said. "Did anybody from Adesa come in and say ther ever saw Joe and Scott have a cross word? Did anybody from corrections come in and say there was ever a problem between these two? Did any friend or the girlfriend of Joe Benaquist come in and say there was a cross word between these two men? No. Because they were friends."

Friedman said Doll's financial difficulties led to him taking resale control of a Malibu that Benaquist once drove -- to the point, Friedman said, of forging Benaquist's signature on the title -- and Doll never transferred title to a Pontiac G6 to Benaquist.

"If it (the G6) is sold at auction, it's paid off and he gets to keep the (extra) cash for himself," Friedman said. "The title never went to Benaquist. The defendant had the ability to sell the G6 and keep the proceeds for himself."

Doll had debts as high as $28,000 and was working with a debt-resolution company. Cambria pointed out that if the company delivered on its promises to Doll, the debt would have been reduced to $15,000.

As for money owed on the G6, Cambria said, the only issue just prior to Feb. 16, 2009 -- the night Benaquist was killed -- was a $1,500 payment that was due, and that payment was made automatically that day from Doll's overdraft account at Adesa.

The payment wasn't an issue, Cambria said.

Friedman argued that Doll forged a signature on the title for the Chevy Malibu -- a forgery that if discovered could lead to his dismissal, just three months shy of retirement, from the Department of Corrections. Furthermore, Doll never applied a $10,000 payment from Benaquist to his credit account at the Adesa auction as he should have, thereby denying Benaquist the ability to take title of the Pontiac G6.

No Weapon
Law enforcement searched three times in the area of North Lake and Knapp roads for the weapon that might have been used to bludgeon Joseph Benaquist to death. The weapon was never found, Cambria argued.

It defies common sense, according to Cambria, that Doll would have disposed of the weapon, but not the blood-stained coveralls he was wearing, his bloody sneakers or the blood-soaked gloves he left on the hood of a car the night of the murder.

"There was no weapon found because the person who beat Joseph Benaquist took the weapon with him," Cambria said. "Common sense tells you that if you beat somebody up and beat them like this, would you stick around, would you be walking back to the scene if you had just beaten somebody to death, or would you be out of there and take the weapon with you?"

Cambria argued that it wasn't logical that Doll would dispose of a weapon, but not also ensure that his gloves, shoes and coveralls wouldn't also be hidden. He argued that it wouldn't make sense for Doll to dispose of the weapon, but then return to the murder scene with no gloves, which would mean he would leave behind fingerprints.

The lack of a weapon didn't trouble Friedman. There are any number of ways, and plenty of time, potentially, for Scott Doll to drive to any number of possible spots to get rid of the weapon. The defense wants jurors, Friedman argued, to jump to the assumption that Doll drove straight from finding his buddy dead to the location where his van was eventually found, but there is no evidence, Friedman argued, that Doll did that. He could have driven anywhere before heading to the corner of Main and North Lake roads to park the minivan.

No call to 9-1-1
When Scott Doll arrived at the murder scene, in his version of events, he rushed to his buddy's side.

Which brings up the question, according to Friedman: Why didn't he call 9-1-1?

Doll was a corrections officer. He had training in emergency situations.

His friend was obviously seriously wounded. Sure, he would rush to his side, Friedman argued, but a reasonable person would first call 9-1-1.

But there's no evidence that Doll ever made such a call.

Doll testified that after Benaquist died, he approached the Knapp Road house, found the door partially opened, and retreated in fear, going to the Main Road location in the Windstar.

Doll testified that he was trying to figure out what to do and that he figured he needed to do something.

Why not call 9-1-1?

Why not call when he first got to the scene, or why not as he drove away? Friedman noted that it wasn't until he was walking back to the scene on North Lake Road that the thought first came to Doll that his son might be involved.

So why not call 9-1-1 if Doll wasn't guilty and it hadn't yet occurred to him that his son might be involved?

This wasn't a point addressed directly in Cambria's closing remarks.

Evidence of a struggle
Cambria argued that the evidence shows a sign of a struggle, from the defensive wounds found on Benaquist's hands to the blood transfer stains on the Nissan Altima and the Pontiac G6.

If Benaquist fought for his life, why isn't there a scratch on Doll, Cambria argued. There were no wounds on Doll, his clothes were not torn and there wasn't much blood on his coveralls to suggest a struggle, Cambria sad.

"if you were involved in something like this, there would be something on you," Cambria said. "There would be a torn piece of clothing, a bruise, a cut, something, and of course, there's no evidence of that."

Friedman countered that there was no struggle because Benaquist was ambushed.

"There is absolutely no evidence that there was any kind of struggle," Friedman said. "There is no evidence Joe Benaquist fought with is attacker. This was a one-sided ambush, a vicious attack on a 66-year-old man by a man 20 years younger."

Cambria complained that nail clippings from Banaquist were not examined for DNA. Friedman said there was no DNA examine because there was no reason to believe the examine would yield any useful evidence.

Bloody Knees
Nobody disputes that the knees of Doll's coveralls were soaked in blood.

Cambria argues that there are only two ways Doll's knees could get so saturated with blood that it soaked through to his skin.

One is that Doll arrived after the attack and knelt down next to his dying friend, just in time to hear his dying words. The other is that Doll was on his knees while beating Benaquist.

The problem with the second explanation, according to Cambria, is that it would take Benaquist a long time to bleed out enough to create the pool of blood that would saturate the knees -- and what murderer would stick around that long on his knees.

And, if Doll did attack Benaquist and was on his knees to do it, there would be blood spatter on the back of the coveralls because of the required motion of the arm holding the blunt object used to beat Benaquist.

From Friedman's view point, there is nothing in evidence to support the assumption of the defense's expert witness that the attacker was on his knees while beating Benaquist. He also pointed out that Herb MacDonell testified that the absence of evidence doesn't mean there is evidence of absence. Meaning, just because you don't find something doesn't mean it should have been found.

Friedman's explanation for the bloody knees relies on an autopsy report that Benaquist was dragged across the driveway after the initial attack. There were scrapes on his back. Perhaps, Friedman argued, Doll dragged Benaquist from under the Altima over toward the G6.

Cambria took issue with the idea that Doll could be on his knees and drag a 220-pound man that far.

Expirated Blood vs. Impact Spatter
According to Friedman, the prosecution's bloodstain-spatter expert, Paul Kisch, said there was no expirated blood -- meaning blood breathed out through the mouth onto a surface -- on the coveralls worn by Scott Doll.

Kisch testified that all of the spatter came from an impact event.

The impact event, Friedman said, was a blunt object hitting Joseph Benaquist, causing spatter on both the coveralls and the Ford Windstar minivan Doll was driving.

Friedman drew a sharp comparison between Kisch and the defense bloodstain-pattern expert, Herbert MacDonell. Kisch studied all of the evidence and all of the reports. He wrote a written document detailing his findings. It was peered reviewed.

MacDonell, on the other hand, took no notes, wrote no report and didn't even physically examine the coveralls until the morning of his testimony.

But Cambria argued that was all the time MacDonell needed to look at the coveralls under his microscope and determine that the spatter on them was from clotted blood, meaning it could not have been blood produced at the time of the attack.

Cambria said MacDonell believed it was expirated blood and criticized the state's crime lab for not testing the spattered blood for saliva, which would better answer one way or another whether the spatter was expirated or from impact.

That test was unnecessary, Friedman argued, because the physical evidence, as Kisch testified, was clearly in favor of impact spatter. Kisch, unlike MacConell, actually read the medical examiner's report, which said there was no blood in the throat or mouth of Benaquist, and no significant amount of blood in the area of his mouth, meaning it was easy to rule out expirated blood.

Blood on the Windstar
According to Friedman, Kisch testified that the blood on the Ford Windstar Scott Doll was driving the evening of Feb. 16, 2009, was clearly impact spatter that came from an impact event in Benaquist's blood. That impact event, according to Friedman, was the blunt-force attack on Benaquist.

The impact spatter on the Windstar unequivocally places the Windstar at the scene of the attack, according to Friedman.

Cambria argued that his bloodstain-pattern expert said that it was impossible for spatter drops as small as those found on the Windstar to travel more than four or five feet. And photographic evidence showing Scott Doll's bloody footprint in the area where the Windstar would have been parked, was much further than four or five feet from the spot of the attack.

Also, Kisch testified that the spatter marks hit the back fender of the Windstar at a 90-degree angle. But Cambria showed a photograph of Benaquist's body behind the G6, with the Altima pulled slightly behind it. That would indicate that if the blood spatter from the attack could reach the Windstar at all, it wouldn't have done so at a 90-degree angle.

Cambria also argued that a spatter stain on the headlamp of the Windstar wasn't impact spatter, but clearly a transfer stain.

Friedman said that Herb MacDonell never offered any sort of explanation for how the blood got onto the Windstar.

Scott Doll's Statements
The statements Scott Doll made immediately after coming into contact with law enforcement the night of Feb. 16, 2009, were either the statements of a man trying to figure out what was going on and trying to buy time to figure it out, or they were the statements of a man trying to hide a crime and tacitly admitting his guilt.

If you believe the case put on by Paul Cambria, Doll said nothing that admits any degree of guilt.

On the other hand, Friedman argues that Doll's statements were A) cold and calculating, aimed to deceive law enforcement; B) demonstrate a changing version of the story, which is an indication of lying, and C) admissions of guilt.

When Doll was first stopped by law enforcement and asked about the blood on his coveralls, he said, "I butcher deer."

For Cambria, this shows Doll still wasn't aware he had fresh blood on his coveralls.

When a deputy asked Doll where he was going, he said a friend's house, and then gave directions that would lead away from Benaquist's house.

Friedman says this was an attempt to coldly deceive law enforcement.

Cambria says Doll was just trying to buy time.

Cambria complains that Doll repeatedly asked to speak with an attorney, and Friedman says that when a deputy asked, which attorney, Doll said his divorce attorney, but couldn't remember his name.

Doll, while shackled to the floor in the Sheriff's Office, tells a friend that "it's an open and shut case," and when asked if there was a body, he said, "I don't know that" (but clearly, even by his own testimony, he knew there was a body), and "I guess I'll get what I deserve."

To Friedman these are all statements of a guilty conscience.

Cambria says they are just statements of a man who wanted to talk to an attorney, was denied that request and was feeling the police already had him convicted.

BATAVIA, NY -- Shortly after 5 p.m., Judge Robert C. Noonan gave the jurors in the Scott Doll murder trial what he called a "little history lesson."

Noonan said for his 20 years as a lawyer and the first five years as a judge, jurors who hadn't reached a verdict at the end of the day would be sent to a hotel, each with a room with no TV and their mobile phones would be taken away.

"We don't do that anymore," Noonan said.

He then proceeded to instruct the jurors to avoid all contact with any information or discussion about the case.

He said they are at a critical stage of the trial and there should be no outside influences on their thinking.

Before dismissing the jurors for the evening, there was no indication given as to how far along the jurors might be in their diliberations.

They were instructed to return at 9 a.m.

BATAVIA, NY -- Apply your common sense, jurors in the Scott Doll murder trial were told this morning.

That was the plea from Doll's attorney Paul Cambria and the message from District Attorney Lawrence Friedman.

But of course, the two experienced attorneys disagreed on where common sense would lead the jury.

For Cambria, it was toward acquittal and for Friedman it was toward conviction.

Around 2 this afternoon, after 45 minutes of instructions from Judge Robert C. Noonan, the 12 primary jurors were led to a private room where they are expected to deliberate in secret until they determine which trail of common sense leads to a verdict of guilt or innocence.

"I'm going to go through the evidence with you step-by-step," said Cambria to start his final presentation to the jury. "I'm going to show you that the evidence demonstrates, or fails to demonstrate, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm guided by common sense and I think common sense always rules the day ... I'm asking you to look at the case as reasonable people would look at it."

Friedman opened his closing argument by characterizing the defense case as "speculation."

"I will ask you to return a verdict based on facts," Friedman said.

As he wound up his remarks, Friedman referenced "Occam's razor," a rule of logic that postulates that the simplest explanation is often the right explanation.

"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not an invitation to abandon common sense," Friedman said. "Common sense will lead you to the correct answer. Common sense will answer the question, 'who did this?'"

NOTE: Assuming the jury doesn't come back with a verdict some time soon, I will write a more in depth story about the closing arguments tonight.

(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."

BATAVIA, NY -- The testimony of Scott Doll's former corrections' department coworker was called into question this afternoon in his murder trial in Genesee County Court.

Teresa Zelaszkiewicz is a retired corrections officer who worked in the special-needs unit for at-risk offenders at the Wendy Correctional Facility.

She said she met Doll there when he applied to a job posting for that unit and was friendly with him for three years before she retired, and remains friends with him.

She testified that in the early morning hours of Feb. 17, 2009, she was asleep at home. A text message from Doll's girlfriend awakened her. After getting up and driving to the couple's house in Corfu, the two women decided they would go to the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Around 3:30 a.m. Feb. 17, following the murder on Feb. 16, the former coworker went to the facility and was greeted by Det. Kris Kautz. She asked to speak with Doll and was denied, she asked to meet with him a second time "out of professional courtesy" and was allowed to do so.

Zelaszkiewicz, with short-cropped, highlightened brown hair, wearing glasses, tan pants and a plaid jacket, testified that Kautz told her she could meet with Doll, but Kautz would be present.

Kautz earlier testified that that he took notes about the conversation between Doll and Zelaszkiewicz. But the witness today denied Kautz took any notes whatsoever. She told District Attorney Lawrence Friedman that Kautz did not in fact have a large yellow legal pad and used neither pen nor pencil to takes notes. Also, he had no tape-recording device.

It is hard to determine whom, if anyone, she helped by taking the stand. She was the second witness called by the defense team, but she seemed incapable of recalling facts that she testified to only minutes previously.

The pre-trial testimony she provided to attorneys was gone over. While in the holding cell with Doll, she found him shackled to the floor, sitting on a bench, equi-distant from herself and Kautz. She asked him "If his head's OK, and if she needed to call someone for him," she told Friedman.

She said Doll replied that his head was OK and he didn't want her to call anyone. Yet they discussed getting legal help and she said he told her that preferred to get a public defender. She said he told her, basically, why pay for an expensive attorney when a public defender can do the same job?

She asked if this was the way he wanted to go and he said he was not sure, adding "Look what happened to Sing (or Singh)."

She asked him if a deer were involved, he said no.

But she did not recall asking him "Please tell me there's no dead body!" which was a statement offered by Kautz.

"I asked him if there was someone else involved and he said 'I can't say...I was there but I didn't do it.'"

The relevance of notes she claimed she wrote came into play. She testified that she wrote down her recollection of the Sheriff's Office conversation with Doll in the days following the meeting on 5-by-7 inch "sticky" note cards.

But she was unclear as to whether the notes she took included her questions, his answers, or both, or whether all the converation was included, or what parts, if any, were left in and why.

The judge, outside the presence of the jury, berated the witness for clearly telling jurors she took notes about her converstation with Doll at the Sheriff's station, but later saying she has no idea where the notes are and whether they could be produced.

Noonan asked her if the case were recessed so she, accompanied by a deputy, could sort through her household goods, if there was a likelihood of finding the note cards.

She said, no, she had done so much remodeling it is doubtful she would find the index cards.

The witness said she talked with Doll's defense team on the phone at times, but she hadn't met them in person until Friday. She never informed the attorneys of the alledged notes, which only came to light on the witness stand.

In an unexpected twist in the Scott Doll murder trial, Judge Robert Noonan said, outside the presence of the jury, that the accused killer will be taking the witness stand.

The matter of his testimony came up after lawyers on both sides of the aisle took issue with a witness's testimony about her conversation with Doll at the Sheriff's station. She could testify about her state of mind and what she observed and heard, but could not testify about Doll's state of mind.

That would be addressed by Doll himself when he takes the stand.

At the conclusion of the day's session at 4:30, Noonan told the jurors the case is moving along somewhat sooner than predicted. Final evidence will be offered tomorrow, with the afternoon most likely being taken up with complicated legal points between the judge and the attorneys, without the jury present.

Noonan said the jury may get the case by Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, after closing arguments are completed.

BATAVIA, NY -- Blood spatter on the coveralls worn by Scott F. Doll the night Joseph Benaquist was killed suggest that Doll was not the one who bludgeoned Benaquist to death, said an expert witness brought in by the defense.

It's nearly impossible, said Herbert MacDonell, of Corning, that the spatter on the coveralls and the spatter on a Ford Windstar, which Doll seems to have been driving that night came, from the same impact event in a source of blood.

In fact, MacDonell said, the spatter on the coveralls is more consistent with expirated blood (such as if Benaquist coughed it up while talking with Doll).

MacDonell postulated that if the person who killed Benaquist was holding him down with his left hand, kneeling over him, beating him using a blunt object in his right hand, then the left sleeve of the coveralls should be covered with a lot more blood than it is.

Further, MacDonell said, the back swings of the assislant would cause spatter on the back shoulder and the back leg of the coveralls, and there is only one spatter spot on the back leg of the coveralls.

The inconsistancy with MacDonell's testimony -- which was not clearly drawn out by either the prosecution or the defense -- is that there has been no evidence introduced thus far (and the prosecution has rested its case) that the murderer was kneeling and holding Benaquist down at the time of the attack.

In fact, Cambria has pursued a line of questions with other witnesses that suggests Benaquist fought for his life, causing blood transfer on two nearby vehicles, including the underside of a Nissan Altima.

It's unclear, based on today's testimony, where MacDonell came up with the assumption that Benaquist's killer was kneeling and holding him down with his left hand.

Based on his examination this morning of the blood spatter on the coveralls, MacDonell concluded that the spatter was from a blood source that had already started to clot.

Fresh blood, he said, would immediately soak into the fabric, but in this case, MacDonell said, the blood drops landed on the coveralls and didn't penetrate the cloth, sitting there, he said, "like a fried egg."

This would suggest, he said, that the person wearing the coveralls came in contact with a source of blood spatter some time after the initial attack. 

He also said the spatter on the Windstar was consistent with a stronger-force impact into a source of blood than that of the spatter on the coveralls.

Assistant District Attorney Will Zickl asked a series of questions related to possibly faulty assumptions and how a different assumption might change MacDonell's conclusions. But he never asked just why MacDonell thought the killer was holding Benaquist with his left arm.

Autopsy photos show that Benaquist received blows to the sides, front and back of his head, not just one side.

Zickl did try to impeach MacDonell's testimony by drawing out of him that he did not produce a written report for the trial.

MacDonell at first said he didn't need to produce a written report because the conclusions were obvious. He then said that in the months leading up to the trial, he only had photographic evidence to review. He said that if he had received the coveralls to examine, he would have produced a written report. Yet, MacDonell never asked to examine the coveralls and did not do so until about an hour before this morning's testimony.

Zickl also wanted to pursue a line of questioning about peer review, noting that the prosecution's bloodstain-pattern expert wrote a report and put it through technical "peer" review with a colleague of MacDonell's. But after a discussion with the jury out of the room, Judge Robert Noonan ruled that a discussion of the peer review would mean the use of hearsay.

BATAVIA, NY -- The prosecution rested its case -- meaning District Attorney Lawrence Friedman has presented all of his evidence -- on Thursday, and Monday morning opened with defense attorney Paul Cambria calling his first witnesses on behalf of Scott F. Doll.

Doll is accused of killing Joseph Benaquist on Feb. 16, 2009, in Pembroke.

During last week's testimony, Friedman presented evidence that showed the blood of Benaquist was found spattered on Doll's coveralls and the Ford Windstar he was reportedly driving that night.

The defense does not dispute that it was Benaquist's blood at the crime scene and on Doll, but Cambria does dispute how the blood got there.

In his opening remarks, Cambria said Doll arrived at the murder scene after Benaquist was attacked and heard his dying words, "The boy. The boy." Those final words haunted Doll, Cambria said, who wondered if his son Josh might have beaten Benaquist to death.

In his opening remarks, Friedman said he would ask the jurors to "connect the dots." 

Those dots include a flat tire on a Pontiac G6 that Friedman says was at the heart of a dispute between Benaquist and Doll, and a broke jack next to a Nissan Altima that had a blood smear on the undercarriage.

In cross examination of a blood-pattern expert last week, Cambria suggested that maybe that blood got there as Benaquist fought for his life, not as a stain transfer from a bloody glove of Scott Doll.

Doll was found that night walking on North Lake Road toward the murder scene carrying a jack, a lug wrench and a screwdriver.

Included in the prosecution's case were records of phone calls made to and from Doll's mobile phone, including one to the Adesa auto auction and five incoming calls from Josh Doll. 

Cambria said it will take "a couple of days" to present his case.

Murder victim Joseph Benaquist's son, Michael Benaquist, took the witness stand for testimony Thursday afternoon in Scott Doll's trial.

A series of his father's written checks from Key Bank were observed. Michael agreed that all of his father’s signatures on the checks were valid and had been signed by his father.

However, on the contract for the title of the 2006 Chevy Malibu, District Attorney Friedman asked, “Is that your father’s signature?” 

“No” Benaquist replied.

Benaquist was then shown three videos from the Adesa auction camera. In the third video, Benaquist was asked to observe a gentleman wearing a plaid jacket.

The video revealed the man speaking and standing next to another man. The second man was recorded wearing a tan jacket and a baseball cap.

One of Doll's attorneys, Daniel Killelea, asked if the individual in plaid was Benaquist’s father. Benaquist stated that although he was not completely sure, he thought it might be. The other two videos showed the man in the tan jacket wearing a baseball cap at the auction.

Benaquist agreed that in two of the videos, his father’s 2006 Chevy Malibu was passing by the camera. However, he testified that he could not recognize who the other man was, wearing the tan jacket, at any point in the videos.  

Paul Kisch, bloodstain-pattern expert, remained on the stand to be cross-examined as the first witness of the afternoon. He agreed with defense attorney, Paul Cambria, that from looking at the autopsy report, there were a number of large cuts on Joseph Benaquist’s head.

The cause of Benaquist’s blood spatter onto Doll’s shoes, overalls and the outside of his Windstar van still remain in question.  

Cambria asked the expert, “Is it safe to say that if enough blood came down Benaquist’s head, it could have sprayed on to other individuals nearby? Which is called “expiration," and is the blowing off of blood from the nose, mouth or a wound, pushed by an air source?”

Kisch agreed and testified that this was possible. It was agreed that the impact spatter of blood from a beating can have the same size and range of blood as from coughing blood.

“Expirated, spattered blood can appear similar to impact blood by size and range,” Kisch claimed. However, Kisch made it clear that the blood found on Doll’s clothing and vehicle was “completely consistent with impact spatter that we notice in our case studies and experiments.”

It was verified by Kisch that the blood stains on the Pontiac G6, which had been parked in Benaquist’s driveway the night his body was found, were all transfer stains (the blood on one object was transferred on to another).

As for the puddle of blood found underneath the Nissan Ultima, which was also parked in Benaquist’s driveway, Kisch testified that the blood could have gotten there as a result of another person moving the body to that area.

Kisch also concluded that the blood found on Doll’s overalls and the Windstar van were a result of being in close proximity with Benaquist during the assault.

The jury was dismissed 45 minutes early for the weekend.

BATAVIA, NY -- There is blood spatter on Scott Doll's coveralls and blood spatter on the Ford Windstar he reportedly drove the day that Joseph Benaquist was found dead in the driveway of his Pembroke home, a bloodstain pattern expert testified today.

The spatter -- which is Benaquist's blood -- was caused by an impact of some kind on a source of blood, said Paul Kisch, whose expertise in the field was well established at the start of his testimony.

Kisch stopped short of saying the spatter was caused by an impact to any part of Benaquist's body.

The 66-year-old former corrections officer was found dead on Feb. 16, 2009, laying on his back in a large, dark pool of his own blood.

The spatter marks -- none shown in photos were bigger than a heavy pen mark -- were described as being over most parts of the front of Doll's camouflage coveralls, as well as the driver's side of the Ford Windstar.

"The spatter is consistent with impact spatter in close proximity to an impact event," Kisch said. "It is consistent with an impact event associated with Joseph Benaquist's blood."

Kisch made similar statements about both the spatter on the coveralls and the Windstar.

Doll was found just before 9 p.m. on Feb. 16 walking north on North Lake Road, toward Benaquist's home, carrying a jack and lug wrench, while the Windstar was parked at a garage on North Lake and Main Road in Pembroke.

A pair of bloody gloves were found on the hood of a car next to the Windstar.

Kisch also testified that there were what he called "transfer stains" (meaning blood got on one object and was transferred to another surface by touch it) on the pavement (likely from tennis shoes, he said), under a Nissan Altima parked in the driveway, and a Pontiac G6 parked near Benaquist's body.

Under cross examination for Doll's attorney Paul Cambria, Kisch could not say if the blood on the G6 revealed anything about the direction of struggle that might have taken place during the confrontation that cost Benquist his life.

As for the transfer under the Nissan, Kisch testified that he couldn't say whether that blood came from Benaquist touching that spot during a struggle or from Scott Doll touch that spot with a bloody glove at some point.

In the middle of Cambria's cross examination, it was time for the trial to break for lunch.

Prior to Kisch taking the stand, Investigator Ronald Welker testified about his examination of a phone belonging to Benaquist and of call records associated with Scott Doll's phone.

In the week before his death, Benaquist's phone was used to make four calls to Doll's phone, the last being at 4:46 p.m., Feb. 14.

On Feb 15, Benaquist's phone received a call from Scott Doll's phone, and again at 3:06 p.m. on the day of the murder.

On that day, at 4:16 p.m. and again at 4:31 p.m., two additional calls came into Benaquist's phone -- one from his girlfriend's mobile phone and another from her house phone.

As for Scott Doll's phone, he made an outbound call at 4:01 p.m. to the Adesa auto auction house, and then his phone received a phone call a few minutes later from the National Debt Resolution Center.

A short time later, his mother Audrey Doll called, and then in rapid succession, Scott Doll's son Josh placed four calls to the number -- all of which went to phone mail, we learned in yesterday's testimony. Josh called a fifth time that night.

Jurors in the Scott Doll murder trial this afternoon were shown three videos from the Adesa auction house in Akron that covered three different auto transactions central to case.

Defense Attorney Daniel Killelea walked Warren Klaus, general manager of Adesa, through the videos and procedure of auction sales.

The first video of the auction block shown to jurors was from Sept. 9, 2008. It shows the silver Pontiac G6 in the auction.

Killelea asked Klaus if he could point out Scott Doll at any point during the first two video clips. Klaus repeatedly stated that he could not identify Doll.

A clip of the green Chevy Malibu being bid on was shown.

Killelea observed a male seen throughout one of the clips.

After showing the recording from Nov. 25, 2008, Killelea asked Klaus whether the individual who had won the bid on the 2006 Malibu appeared to be Scott Doll.

Warren Klaus replied, “no, but it looks like it could be Josh Doll."

“Doll’s son?” asked Killelea.

“Yes” testified Klaus.

The third video, combined short clips that were dated from different times to help the jury better understand the auction process. After it had been shown, Klaus stated, “another Tuesday at Adesa Buffalo” to emphasize that the auction occurs weekly, on Tuesdays.

Klaus also testified that the murder victim, Joseph Benaquist, was an authorized user on Doll's Adesa account at one time, but was removed on April 5, 2004, possibly to add someone else's name to the access list.

Under questioning by Killelea, Klaus acknowledged that in February 2009, more than seven people were listed on Doll's account with auction access.

Klaus added, “Yes, I would agree, and there appears to be more than seven authorized users.” It was also agreed that multiple holds were put on Doll’s access.

Dealer agents are required to have an access card to enter the auction, which is a swipable photo ID issued by the auction house. But Klaus acknowledged the entry process is insecure and people other than the authorized agent can use a valid card to enter the auction.

Even so, he said, employees come to know and recognize regular attendees.

Klaus said he didn't remember seeing Josh Doll at Adesa auctions.

The afternoon’s second witness was Christopher Crangle, assistant branch manager of Automotive Finance Corporation (AFC).

Assistant District Attorney Melissa Cianfrini questioned Crangle regarding his company’s role in dealing with “problem accounts” including collections, and loss prevention.

Crangle was asked to explain a “floor plan” where a line of credit is extended to car dealers to purchase automobiles.

Crangle testified that AFC was in receipt of the Pontiac G6 vehicle.

It was noted that the defendant placed the 2006 Malibu on the floor plan on Jan. 8, 2009.

But Scott Doll's account was restricted and he could not add more users to his account because there were some issues regarding Doll’s personal credit.

He had four delinquent accounts, which were $16,000 in arrears.

Crangle said he had followed up with Doll to notify him of his delinquent accounts.

Crangle testified that he contacted Doll four days before the Malibu was placed on the floor plan to advise him that AFC was freezing his credit, so he could not purchase more autos with through AFC.

The last witness to take the stand was Sarah Henninger, also an assistant branch manager from AFC.

She explained to the jury that her duty involves operations, including checking dealer compliance with floor plan requirements.

The company verifies the car’s existence, to make sure the owner has not secretly sold the vehicle, by performing "lot checks" at random.

Henninger testified that during an AFC lot check conducted on Jan. 9, 2009, Doll’s Dodge Grand Caravan was not on site as required by the floor plan.

Henninger said that Scott Doll eventually brought the vehicle in to AFC because the “vehicle was missing during the lot check on the account."

When Cianfrini asked Henninger where the Dodge Caravan was located during the check, Henninger agreed that Doll had said it was “in the garage."

Henninger then contacted SF Enterprises and she personally saw the vehicle on Jan. 13, confirming it was still in Doll’s possession.

Sarah Henninger testified that Scott Doll from SF Enterprises had the account with AFC, not Joseph Benaquist.

BATAVIA, NY -- Phone, insurance and auto auction records were presented to the jury today in the murder trial of Scott F. Doll, the Corfu man accused of killing Joseph Benaquist on Feb. 16, 2009.

Jacob Ebel, the retail sales manager for the Verizon store on Lewiston Road, Batavia, took the stand first and explained how to read the call records for Scott Doll's phone.

The record shows that Doll made his final outbound call on Feb. 16 at 4:01 p.m.

Later in the morning when the Adesa auto auction manager, Warren Klaus, was on the stand, it was established that the 4:01 p.m. call was to the Adesa auction house in Akron.

The phone records also show that there were eight inbound calls to Doll's phone between 5:16 p.m. and 11:04 p.m. Some of them within seconds of each other. Several of the calls were from the same number.

Ebel could not say who the inbound calls were coming from and no witness testified this morning on that fact.

A theory of the case put forward by Doll's attorney, Paul Cambria, in his opening statement last week, was that Scott Doll went to Benaquist's house after he and Josh Doll failed to show up at the auction house as planned. Doll, according to Cambria, found Benaquist barely alive. His final words, Cambria said, were "The boy. The boy." 

Cambria said then that Scott Doll began to wonder if Benaquist meant his son, Josh Doll.

Insurance record testimony was given by Ed Sager, a State Farm underwriter. He testified that Benaquist had a personal auto policy with State Farm. 

Benaquist did not have a "garage owner's" policy, which would have allowed Benaquist to use dealer plates on any car and have those cars covered while in operation.

The personal policy first covered a 2006 Chevy Malibu from Aug. 17, 2006 to Sept. 10, 2008. Starting on Sept. 10, 2008, Benaquist had an insurance policy on a 2008 Pontiac G6.

At the time of Benaquist's death, there was coverage in place in his name, on the G6, a Chevy Corvette and a Nissan Altima.

Sager did not know if Benaquist had any other vehicles insured with another company, or if he might have a "garage owner's" policy through another company, he said in response to questions from Dan Killelea, also representing Doll.

There were six vehicles parked on Benaquist's property at the time of his death, according to previous testimony.

Klaus was on the stand when Judge Robert Noonan called for a lunch recess.

During his morning testimony, Klaus said that in February 2009, Scott Doll's auto dealer company, SF Enterprises, had two authorized agents with Adesa access cards -- one for Scott Doll and one for Brandon Doll.

In previous testimoney we learned Brandon's Card was in Benaquist's wallet at the time of this death.

Klaus testified that, while it's ideal that only the person issued the card ever uses it, it is possible for an unauthorized person to use another auto agent's card to gain access to the auction.

When authorized agents enter the auction area, they first swipe their cards into a computer system.

Computer records are kept of when people arrive at the auction. If the dealer buys a car that day, a computer-stored digital signature of the buyer appears on the sales receipt.

On the receipt for the 2006 Malibu, the digital signature of Brandon Doll appears on the receipt. The Malibu was purchased Aug. 15, 2006 for $12,500 with a $250 buyer's fee. The odometer read 15,981 miles at the time of purchase.

On the G6, the car was bought at auction on Sept. 9, 2008. The digital signature belongs to Scott Doll. The purchase price was $13,300 with a buyer's fee of $245. The odometer reading was 20,483 miles.

Klaus also testified that in January 2009 and on Feb. 12, 2009, auction access to Adesa was denied to SF Enterprises because of bounced checks. In both cases, the checks were made good the next day.

According to Klaus, auctions open to all dealers are only held on Tuesdays. Once a month, on a Monday, there is an auction open only to Ford dealers.

In February 2009, only Scott and Brandon Doll had access cards for the auction. But Klaus testified that upon reviewing the printouts of his company's computer records, he found many other people also had access cards from SF Enterprises. Klaus said the list is three pages long.

Speed is being blamed for a truck-into-car accident on Route 77 in Pembroke at 7:11 p.m, Tuesday.

Hurt in the crash was 20-year-old Kyle A. Bilby of N. Pearl Street, Oakfield. Bilby was transported to UMMC with non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the report by Deputy Kevin McCarthy, Bilby was driving a 2000 Ford sedan south on Route 77 at an "unsafe speed" when he attempted pass a semi-truck on the right.

Bilby apparently lost control of his car and hit the truck.

The truck was driven by Alfonza R. Smith, Jr., 30, of Seneca. His passenger was Joseph E. Johnson, 42. Neither Smith nor Johnson were injured.

While McCarthy's report says that Bilby was driving at an unsafe speed, it does not list any citations issued.

Five witnesses went before the jury in the trial of Corfu resident Scott Franklin Doll, yet the panel still got out 45 minutes early this afternoon.

The jurors heard from a DNA expert, two men from the Genesee County Sheriff's office, a banker and a car-buying customer of SF Enterprises.

Here are some of the dots the jurors may be obliged to connect.

Forensic Biologist Ellyn Colquhoun, a DNA expert with the Monroe County Public Safety Lab, continued her testimony after the lunch break and testified that DNA could potentially be found in a single drop of blood.

The strength of DNA testing is in its ability to eliminate individuals who don't match in a criminal investigation.

Of the 27 items submitted to the lab for analysis, she personally was responsible for nine items. And of the 27, only seven were analyzed to determine if other DNA was present.

The bloody overalls were hauled out again and she pointed out all the areas tested, noting that the knees were heavily saturated with blood.

A single speck of blood on murder suspect Doll's face, out of three present, had two DNA profiles -- victim Joseph Benaquist's and Doll's.

All of the other samples tested contained only Benaquist's blood and DNA, including the camouflage overalls, the sneakers, and the Ford Windstar.

"You don't know how that blood got where it did, only that it was on the items," asked Doll's co-counsel Daniel Killelea.

Correct, responded Colquhoun.

Swabs from the Nissan Altima and the Pontiac G6 found at the scene were submitted but never asked to be analyzed by the Genesee County District Attorney's office.

"Many things are submitted, but relatively few are tested," said Deputy District Attorney William Zickl during the jury's afternoon recess.

That is not willy-nilly. Ultimately, after convening with the D.A.'s office, the crime lab, on a case-by-case basis, determines which items get analyzed.

This was the case in regard to Benaquist's fingernail clippings snipped during the autopsy. They were submitted for analysis but ultimately that was not deemed of utmost importance. Only items with the greatest exculpatory evidence value is tested.

Lastly, she testified that while DNA testing typically takes six weeks, it has been known to take a year or more, noting that some incomplete cases on her desk are over 12 months old.

Next up was John Dehm, a youth officer with the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, which is part of the Criminal Investigation Division. He testified that he was selected, based on previous experience, to take aerial photos of the crime scene. He did so while aboard a State Police helicopter on Feb. 17, 2009, the same day Benaquist's body was found.

He also took part in two different ground searches in the vicinity. He testified that he was among a group of about 10 officers from the Sheriff's and State Police offices who fanned out along the roadways to search for evidence.

One such search occurred on the east side of North Lake Road, where Doll was found walking toward the crime scene. A second search, with about six participants, occurred along the west side of the same road. In both instances, a few searchers used rakes. There were no metal detectors or canines used in either search.

They found nothing of evidentiary value, but did not scour the area again.

"It's always possible we missed something," Dehm noted.

Then Sheriff's Deputy John Duyssen told the jurors he was an accident reconstructionist and a crime-scene diagrammer. He took measurements, at points indicated by Investigator Steve Mullen, and used those to create a scale drawing of the vicinity in which the crime occurred.

The upshot was that the Adesa Car Auction is nearly six miles (on a vehicle odometer) from the gas station/repair shop (Pembroke Enterprises) near Beneaquist's house on Knapp Road. If the other logical route is taken, the distance is 5.7 miles, with Killelea noting that the portion driven on Route 5 may be busier that other roadways and therefore take more time.

Commercial banker H. Michael Easton, who has been in banking for 31 years, testified on behalf of M&T Bank. Under questioning from District Attorney Lawrence Friedman, he verified several items for inclusion into evidence.

These included: a copy of Doll's bank statement for portions of 2008-09; the form Doll signed to open one of his several accounts on May 26, 2004; Doll's official business certificate as a registered car dealer from the New York DMV; and a copy of a check from Key Bank for $10,000, from Doll's business, SF Enterprises, deposited into the newly opened M&T Bank account.

Last up was car buyer Mark Kobal of Bergen. He told the jury that he had satisfactorily bought a car from Scott Doll a few years ago. When he decided to buy another car in 2008, he again contacted Doll. He told him he wanted to buy a Dodge Grand Caravan.

But Josh Doll is the one who went to the Adesa auction and bought a car for Kobal. Due to miscommunication, he bought the smaller Caravan, instead of the Grand Caravan. The vehicle was registered then and there at the auction, meaning Kobal owned it and had to pay for it.

After that was done and he explained his disatisfaction, it was agreed he'd go ahead and sell the smaller Caravan himself, and then take those proceeds and buy a Grand Caravan. That was done two or three weeks afterward.

But one Saturday afternoon, he lent the mini-Caravan to the Dolls so they could take it to Adesa to show the auction house financiers that they still "had possession of it," because there was a lien against it and proof of possession would satisfy the lien. Of course, they actually did not have possession of the vehicle. It was wholly Kobal's and he merely lent it to them for a few hours to help them out.

Kobal said that he dealt with both Scott and Josh in his transactions with SF Enterprises.

A two-vehicle accident, with one person suffering from an arm injury, is reported on Route 77 in front of the Flying J truck stop. It is blocking traffic. Pembroke and Indian Falls fire personnel are responding along with Mercy BLS.

BATAVIA, NY -- DNA expert Ellyn Colquhoun testified today in the murder trial of Scott Doll and confirmed that the blood found on Doll's coveralls, in and on his van and on his shoes was that of his friend and business associate Joseph Benaquist.

Colquhoun is a forensic biologist with the Monroe County Public Safety Lab in Rochester.

Assistant District Attorney Will Zickl went through, methodically and thoroughly, more than two dozen blood samples that were tested at the lab and introduced each sample -- noting its evidence number and location it was found -- and asking Colquhoun to confirm the nature of the evidence and what she found.

Presenting charts that compared the DNA markers of each sample with that of a sample taken from Benaquist's autopsy, Colquhoun confirmed the samples where that of Benaquist.

One sample -- the blood found on Doll's cheek -- contained both Benaquist's and Doll's DNA, Colquhoun testified.

At the lunch break, Doll's attorney Paul Cambria said, "We don't dispute that it's Benaquist's blood," indicating that during the afternoon cross examination of Colquhoun will be limited.

The process of blood evidence introduction was careful and precise, with Zickl using the same set of questions for each new sample. Still, even some of the jurors who are normally the most attentive were finding it hard to stay riveted to the process. And Juror 8, who has previously been admonished about apparently falling asleep during proceedings, struggled to sit up straight and keep his eyes open.

Another forensic biologist, Stephanie Honeycutt, was on the stand first. It was her job to first receive the blood evidence, analyze it and do the initial tests to confirm that it was human blood. All of the blood samples were human, she said.

Joshua Stanley Martaus, 26, of Batavia, is charged with possession of a hypodermic instrument, possession of a controlled substance not in its original container and harassment, 2nd. Martaus was arrested at 3:30 a.m., today, following an investigation into a domestic incident on Overlook Drive in Batavia. Martaus was accused of dragging a woman by the hair down a hallway.

A 16-year-old Byron girl is charged with harassment, 2nd. The girl allegedly punched her foster sister in the face. Following arraignment, she was released to the custody of the Department of Social Services.

Richard R. Klaver, 49, of Medina, is charged with two counts of official misconduct, promotion of prison contraband, 1st, and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. The arrest and incident location is in the Town of Pembroke on May 7. Klaver was jailed on an unspecified cash bail. The State Police released no further information on this arrest.

Daniel J. Youll, 46, of Alexander, is charged with DWI and aggravated DWI. Youll was stopped by State Police at 1:42 a.m., Saturday, in the area of 3242 Stannard Road, Alexander.

Accidents from the State Police blotter:

6:34 a.m., May 10, Donahue Road, Batavia, one vehicle; Driver 1: Dennis R. Say, 39, of Batavia. No injuries reported.

BATAVIA, NY -- Joseph Benaquist fought ferociously for his life when he was attacked, beaten on his head with a blunt object, and left to die on his driveway in the dead of winter.

If Benaquist could speak at all in his dying moments, it would have been before progressive deterioration of the brain ensued, which would have begun minutes after the fatal blows were struck.

Monroe County Deputy Medical Examiner Scott LaPoint testified Monday afternoon that Benaquist's ability to talk or move would have deterioriated rapidly after the attack, though he could have lived for one to four hours longer, lying on his back in a pool of his own blood, unable to move or speak.

As the fatal blows were struck, Benaquist tried to save himself, putting up his hands to stave off the strikes to his skull, LaPoint said under direct examination from Assistant District Attorney William Zickl. LaPoint said the injuries to Benaquist's hands were consistent with such defensive measures.

When Benaquist's corpse, case No. 09-396, was released to the medical examiner's office by the Genesee County Coroner, it was examined, photographed, documented and then cleaned, shaved, reexamined and rephotograped. Next, the internal organs were removed and analyzed.

The jury in the Scott Doll trial heard all about this process and then were showed gruesome, clinical photos of the 66-year-old's wounds. One of the younger women on the panel pulled a tissue up the her mouth and kept it there with boths hands, obviously distressed by the images. Two other women in the front row grimaced. Juror Number 8, who previously was warned about dozing off, was all eyes and ears.

There was a minor abrasion in the middle of Benaquist's back and more abrasions on his right shoulder. His face was scraped in places and there were at least six large gashes on his head, including a large one across his forehead.

"Any one of those...could potentially lead to a person's death," LaPoint told the jury.

His hands had the kind of injuries associated with fighting off an attacker, La Point said, noting gashes on the inside of one hand, with one finger cut down to the tendon, and cuts on the outside of the other hand.

The internal trauma consisted of two skull fractures, multiple bruises on his swollen brain and blood pooling inside the skull cavity.

His head was struck at least seven or eight times.

A person with such injuries may experience seizures, and could have difficulty moving or speaking before dying.

"Could the injuries have been caused by a car falling off a jack and onto him?" Zickl asked.

No, the witness said.

"Are the abrasions consistent with a body being dragged across a hard surface?" Zickl asked, even though the victim was fully clothed and had on a jacket.

Yes, said the witness.

On cross examination, defense attorney Paul Cambria asked if one could distinguish between injuries on the hand stemming from striking against something or being struck by something.

No, the witness said, but when the injury occurs at or below the second knuckle, it is consistent with defensive actions.

Cambria asked if it could be determined whether the abrasions on his back were the result of the body being dragged along or if they were the result of him lying on his back trying to fend off his attacker.

No, the witness said, there is no way to make that distinction.

LaPoint also acknowledged under cross examination from Cambria that it is difficult to say with certainity how much Benaquist's body could have moved, or whether he was able to speak, and for how long, following the bludgeoning.

Doll's attorney asked if a murder victim's nails, and matter underneath them, typically undergo forensic testing. Yes, LaPoint said, and that was done in this case, too, and the data submitted to the D.A.'s office. But the District Attorney apparently opted not to include them in the case files.

LaPoint was asked if there was a piece of paper with the name "Dave" on it and a phone number found in the watch-pocket of Benaquist's black jeans. Yes, and that was also submitted, the doctor said, as was a sliver of silver-like material embedded found near one of the victim's wrists.

The point being, apparently, that these two submissions also didn't make it into the case files.