Monroe man sentenced to 18 years for murder of woman

Published 7:37 pm Wednesday, November 2, 2011

EVERETT — The girl has been told that her mom got sick and won’t be coming home.

The 8-year-old isn’t convinced. She tells the grown-ups her mom is playing a joke. Her mom will come back for her.

One day, the girl’s family will have to explain that Angela Pettifer was murdered.

A Snohomish County Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced the man convicted of the killing to 18 years in prison — the maximum under the law. A jury in September found Michael Benjamin guilty of second-degree murder.

Benjamin, 46, maintained his innocence during Wednesday’s hearing.

He told Judge David Kurtz that he while he sympathizes with Pettifer’s loved ones, he couldn’t show any remorse because he didn’t kill the Monroe woman.

The defendant asked Kurtz to dismiss the charge against him, saying that prosecutors provided no evidence that proved he killed Pettifer.

Kurtz declined. Highly-skilled attorneys tried the case and 12 people found Benjamin guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the judge said.

The case started out as a “whodunit,” and the jury answered Michael Noel Benjamin, Kurtz said.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson asked for the high-end sentence. Pettifer, who was highly intoxicated, had the fatal bad luck of crossing paths with the defendant, Matheson said.

“Wrong time, wrong place with the wrong guy watching,” the prosecutor said.

Pettifer has spent the night drinking with her father. She was so intoxicated that she needed help getting to her apartment.

Benjamin volunteered, along with two women. The women said Pettifer made it to her apartment, went inside and the latch clicked shut. Another witness said she later spotted Benjamin, soaked in sweat, leaving the building’s third floor, where Pettifer lived. He apparently was heading to his second-floor apartment.

Matheson told the judge on Wednesday that he is convinced there were sexual overtones to the killing.

Benjamin is a registered sex offender. In 2006, he was convicted of three counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

Pettifer was struck on the head with a 23-ounce bottle of Frank’s Red Hot hot sauce then choked to death. Her partially clothed body was found in the bedroom of her third-floor Monroe apartment on Aug. 15, 2010.

Tests indicated DNA consistent with the defendant’s genetic profile was found on Pettifer’s left breast.

Detectives found a largely empty 23-ounce bottle of Frank’s Red Hot hot sauce in Benjamin’s apartment. The glass bottle matched shards recovered in Pettifer’s bedroom. A check of Benjamin’s grocery card showed he’d recently purchased a new bottle of the hot sauce.

Defense attorney Natalie Tarantino had argued that the hot sauce was a false clue. She told jurors that police and prosecutors had rushed to connect her client to the killing, overlooking clues that pointed to other suspects.

Pettifer’s family and friends on Wednesday told Kurtz that Benjamin didn’t deserve leniency. He robbed two children of their mother.

Her death has “left a hole in everyone,” the slain woman’s friend, Amy Smart said.

The more time the defendant spends behind bars means more time the family will have to heal, she said.

The defendant deserved that most severe punishment allowed under the law, Kurtz said.

“This was indeed a murder of unmitigated evil,” the judge said.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.