June 16, 2025 • 56 mins
Christopher Bennett is a Virginia man serving a 1,800-year prison sentence for the 2003 killing of his mother's boyfriend, Vincent McDorman. Bennett, then 18, claimed he shot McDorman after catching him molesting his six-year-old half-sister, Victoria. He was convicted of capital murder, robbery, and breaking and entering, receiving three consecutive life sentences. Bennett's family and supporters argue that he acted to protect his sister and have advocated for clemency, including demonstrations and petitions.
Petition for Christopher Bennett: https://www.change.org/p/a-hero-sentenced-to-prison-for-killing-a-child-molester
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Petition for Christopher Bennett: https://www.change.org/p/a-hero-sentenced-to-prison-for-killing-a-child-molester
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with convicted murderer Christopher Bennett. Christopher Bennett, an eighteen year
old from Craigsville, Virginia, was sentenced to eighteen hundred years
in prison after he shot and killed his stepfather, Vincent
McDorman on July twenty fifth, two thousand and three. Bennett
claimed that he discovered McDorman molested his six year old
(00:35):
half sister, Victoria, and acted in defensive hurt. At the time,
Bennett was given the choice between facing the death penalty
or accepting a plea deal that resulted in three consecutive
life sentences totally in eighteen hundred years. He accepted the
plea deal, which resulted in charges of capital murder, breaking
and entering with a deadly weapon, and robbery. The case
(00:56):
garnered significant attention due to the severity of Bennett's sentence
and the soircumstances surrounding the crime. Supporters argue that Bennett's
actions were a response to the abuse of his sister
and that the punishment is disproportionate. Victoria, now an adult,
has publicly supported her brother, stating that he saved her
from further abuse and calling him a hero. She has
also indicated that she was too young at the time
(01:17):
to fully understand her disclose the abuse, and that her
testimony was not adequately considered during the trial. Advocacy for
Bennet's release has grown over the years, with petitions of
massing over one hundred and fifty thousand signatures and public demonstrations,
including a notable rally outside the Governor's mansion in Richmond, Virginia.
The case received national attention when it was featured on
(01:39):
The Doctor phil Show, further highlighting the debate over his
lengthy sentence. Despite these efforts, clemency has not been granted,
and the case remains a point of contention regarding justice
and punishment. Critics of the prosecution argue that Bennett's legal
representation was inadequate, with claims that key evidence in psychological
evaluations were not properly considered. A state appointed psychologist report,
(02:02):
which suggested that Bennetts diminisimental capacity and history of abuse,
was reportedly not disclosed to his defense team until after
he pled guilty. This has led to questions about the
fairness of the trial and whether Bennett's actions were a
result of trauma induced psychological distress. Here's my interview with
Christopher Bennett.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Hello, this is a prepaid debit call from Chris at
the Virginia Department of Corrections Pocahontas State Correction. Well it was.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
My name was Christopher Bennett from Virginia. I grew up
in Augusta County and a little town called Craigsville. I
was raised yet I am Now I've been incarcerated since
two thousand and three July two thousand and three. I've
(03:00):
spent the last almost twenty two years in the Western
District of Virginia and in basically three different prisons. I
spent seventeen years at one prison, and now I'm at
a level three where this is the final level that
I can go to. I can either go any lower. Uh,
(03:23):
you know, I'm in the best situation that I can
be in as far as being in prison.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So can you recall any positive memories that they got
to you from your childhood?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh? Yeah, I've got loads of positive memories. You know.
Used to go camping and fishing, used to you know,
run around run around Craigsville with my friends and stuff.
We'd be running around in the mountains or even even
(03:57):
in the house that I grew up in. We used
to have we had we had a swimming pool and uh,
all of the neighborhood kids would come over and play.
It was it seemed like quite a few good memories.
You know. Went to theme parks with my friends. The
(04:19):
Chacotique Islands, which is off the coast of Virginia. I
used to go there with one of my friends when
I was real, I was real young man. I was
probably like seven or eight at the time. I used
to do a lot of a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What about any negative memories that stick out to you
from your childhood? Can you recall any negative memories?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh? Yeah, I mean, let's see, from my earliest memory
when my mom was still living with my dad, and
this was before well we had we were taken away
by Social services, and that was when I was probably
four years old, I think, so before that, I remember
(05:04):
my dad coming home drunk because he was bleeding out
of his eye. He grabbed the two seventy you know
at the time what he knows to seventy, but you know,
he grabbed a rifle off of the wall behind us
and was like waving it around and pointing it at
us and threatening to kill everybody. I remember when Social
(05:28):
Services they came and took us from took me and
my brothers. I had four other brothers. They came and
took us from our babysitters. So I didn't know who
they were. I thought we was being like kidnapped or something.
So they just came up and yanked us out of
(05:48):
our babysitters arms and put us in separate cars and
drove off. And and my mom she come in. She
come driving up the road crying, you know, saying how
don't take her babies? You know, we used to. We
was taking off some different foster homes. Had to stay
there for for a little while, and then we was
(06:13):
giving back to mom later on. And then that's when
she was with Evince. That's when she had met Vince.
That's my sister's dad. So I mean he used to
take me down. He used to take me to his
shop and let me work on all the cars and
stuff with him and all that stuff. So those was
all good memories. Let's see. Then Easton, you know, he
(06:41):
started being a piece of shit. But he would just
do a little weird shit, you know, playing well at nighttime,
he would like he would come up in to my
bedroom and he would come in there and he saw it.
Like first he says, started coming up her talking to me,
and then we'd started kickling me. And then eventually he
(07:04):
started playing with my genitals, you know, ship like that,
and then he would he would be sticking his finger
in my mouth, just fucking nasty ass sh it. So
those memories, I've got those memories which are horrible.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
And that and the Vince that's the that's the person
that passed away in.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
This cave, right, yeah, for this crime.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah crime, okay, So that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It progressed on through. I mean eventually he was leaving.
Eventually I would sleep with my gene I would sleep
with my jeans going fully closed. Uh you know, I
would try to have like somebody staying over at the
over in my house and a lot. When that was
(07:59):
after we moved out to craigs Will see, he was
living in Stanton and you know we didn't have no
friends that stayed over at that house. So but we uh,
one my first sister was born, we moved out to Craigsville,
and that was in like ninety three, I think nineteen
(08:19):
ninety three, and then I would try to have either
my little brother Calvin to stay in the room with
me or somebody like that. But then once I started
doing that, he would come in there and he would
he would beat me with his belt, playing with his belt,
(08:39):
he would wrap his He was super fat, so he
would take his belt off and he would hit me
with it and it would wrap around me because I
was a little tiny dude, seemingly for no reason. But
eventually it would you know, he stopped coming up there,
(09:01):
but I you know, I had to take the brunt
of then I got beat all the time. So so
I was taught not to show any emotions by him
because if I if I cried, he would beat me more,
if that makes sense. So I was so he would
beat me until I stopped crying. Those those were a
(09:25):
few horrible memories.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So was so, was that the extent of your childhood
abuse at the hands events or did you did you
stuffer any other type of abuse as a child growing up?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Oh? Yeah, no, he would uh as far as like
like sexual abuse or they was mainly him like uh
following my genitals, you know, uh, you know, putting his
fucking fingers in my mouth, he would take him blow
into my lungs, or he would make me hold my breath,
(09:59):
and so I was about to pass out, he would
put his hands over my face. You know, he never
took a bath, so his hands smelled like. His hands
smelled like. He smelled like cramping. So and his breath
never brushed. His teeth had smelled horrible. Made me feel
(10:21):
like my lungs was getting ready to bout. But then
us he used to tie me up. He used to
hog time me and throw me in a pool, and
then I would have to I would have to get untied.
You know, he couldn't come around there and get me
out of the water. He was he was too out
of shape. So he would tie me up, throw me
(10:44):
in the pool. I would have to untie myself and
climb out. And then when I'd climb out, I would
try to run by him and he would grab me
again and tie me up again and throw me in there. Uh.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
When he became an e N t At to Rescue squad,
he started using his medical supplies on the UH. He
would he would take like the adult sized tongue suppressor
and shove it. He would shove it down my throat
to make me dag. Uh he thought that was funny.
(11:19):
Or he would uh make me he would hold his
hand over my mouth until I couldn't hardly breathe, and
then when I did, when he did take his hand
off my mouth, he would hit me with a smell
of salt, which would take my breath away. So once
uh you know, and then once we got a little
bit older, he would he would lock food up into
(11:42):
in the van where we was not allowed to eat.
We wouldn't allowed to eat that food, just have any
food in the house.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
He said that food was for his uh for the girls,
which my three sisters at the time. It is so
we ended up having to break into the van and
if we wanted to eat, and uh yeah, so is so?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Is that about the extent of the abuse that you
endured as a child at the hands events or was
there anybody else in your life that was abusing you
at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Uh well, at that time, there was uh well my
h my older brother, my oldest brother actually uh abused
he had abused me. Wants also, of course I haven't
(12:49):
really spoken of that too much to anyone. There's like
two people who know that that my oldest brother and
used me so and uh yeah, that was in that
same house while he was living events I was. I
(13:10):
was super young. I was probably seven years old, maybe
eight years old. He was. He was a few years
older than me. He was. I guess he may have
been like thirteen fourteen. Uh so, yeah, he was. He
(13:32):
abused me sexually, maybe a uh, perform oral sex on him.
So yeah. But other than that, no, that was That
was about the extent of the abuse there, other than
(13:52):
being bullied in school when I was little. Who I
guess everybody gets bullied every now and then.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Okay, all right, so you mentioned you have quite a
few siblings that I know. You said you had three
sisters and at.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Least four brothers and three sisters.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
So so you have seven siblings.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, I've had three of our brothers have died, so
I've got one. I've got my oldest brother, have no
idea where he's at. I haven't spoke to him in
the years. And then I've got my three sisters. I've
talked to them on occasion. I talked to my youngest
(14:38):
sister more often. She was she was the one that
was in the house that night. She was the one
that was in his bed with him that night, and
I went.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So, okay, okay, were you close with your siblings growing up?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah, that's pretty close with h three of my brothers.
My my youngest brother, Well, it's the brother that the
year younger than me, my brother Calvin. He died when
he was ten years old. I was eleven. So he
died from a heart failure. So yeah, he was like, well,
(15:21):
he was like bes friends. He was the one that
I had to sleep in the room with me. So
eventually we meama, well the first night did he uh, well,
he noticed that I was letting or I was having
Calvin sleep in the room with me. That's when he
come in there and then just straight beat hell out
of me with his fucking built And then my youngest
(15:47):
brother just died last year in a motorcycle accident. And
then my older brother Michael, so he died in twenty
twenty one. Him, his six year old boy, and his
girlfriend all died in a car accident. They ended up
(16:09):
rounding in a lake. Oh wow, Yeah, that was pretty
close with him.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So after you, after you got back home, after you
were out of the the the foster system or the
group home, whatever, it was what was your behavior like
at home as you were growing up? Like, how did
you behave at home?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Uh? Was? I was always I was always shy with drawn.
I didn't really I was always quiet, said to myself.
Even in school, didn't. I didn't really talk to a
I didn't have a whole lot of friends. I usually
had like one friend when I was in stanton On
(16:58):
growing up, I had one friend in name Alex that
we went to. You know, I used to stay at
his house a little bit here and there. His family
is the one that used to take us to Chickatigue Islands.
They had like a summer house down there, and we
would go down there during the summer. And then once
(17:20):
we moved to Craigsville, I didn't I lost contact with him.
And then, you know, in Craigsville, I had more friends,
you know, because a small little town, so everybody pretty
much knew everybody. It was in second grade when we
moved out there.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
What was your behavior like in school? Focusing more on
your middle school and high school years, like how did
you behave in middle school and high school?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I didn't really do a whole lot. I was actually
if if I was part of a real school that
was actually wanting me to pass with good grades. I
would not have passed. I had terrible grades. I was
missing school all the time, you know, sleeping in class,
(18:11):
didn't want to do the work. I mean I knew
the work, I just didn't I didn't do it. You know.
I was getting incomplete on my report card. So but
for some reason I was passed. I was passed through.
So I actually made it to the tenth grade. I
never did show back up in the tenth grade. But
(18:32):
I actually made it to the tenth grade by not
doing my work. And uh, you know they do that
with a lot out there in those schools. They did
a lot around Craigsville. People from Craigsville, they would just
pass them through school, even if they had some horrible grades. Uh,
(18:54):
let's see, I got I want to say that in
sixth grade, I had to go to a drug program.
I had to actually visit a prison. And but I
had got caught with talanol five hundred. It was just
regular talanow. I got caught with that in school. So
they sent me through a drug program. Not for a while,
(19:23):
but yeah, I had to complete that. I was suspended
from school for acting up in class, and you know
the teacher. He would he would say some type of
slick comments to me, and then I would say slick
slick ship back to him. Then he would send me
to the principal, or he would send me out into
(19:44):
the hallway and I would have to sit out there. Well,
then I he came to give me my hallway past
one time to go to the principal, and I held
him in his classroom, wouldn't let him out because he
had locked me out of the classroom. And then they
so they called the school It was the school cop
(20:04):
at the time, and they called him up there and
he took me home. I couldn't come back to school
until my mom took me into have a meeting with
the principal. Well, my mom had no vehicle, so pretty
much didn't go back to school that year. And I
still passed. I still made it to the next grade,
(20:26):
but I didn't like as far as I getting in
fights and stuff like that. I've probably been in my
two school fights that I didn't even get suspended for.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Did you graduate in high school?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
No? No, I was in prison before I was able
to graduate high school. I got my ged when I
was at when I was at Wallace Ridge Say Prison,
which is a supermax. I got my ged up there.
That was in two thousand and five, I think, where
(21:07):
I was eighteen. I wasn't supposed to graduate high school until,
like I think, I was a class of four. I
was supposed to graduate, but I was in prison in
two thousand and three. So but I made it to
the tenth grade day, just never showed back up. So
I quit then because I was actually i'd become homeless.
(21:30):
I didn't have me and my family, well, me, my mom,
and my little brother EJ. We all became almost after
we was kicked out. Vince had kicked us out of
the house. You know, he went and got custody. Said well,
let's so let's rewind to when we was living with Vince.
(21:56):
I don't know how everything went on, but you know,
Mom and him, I guess didn't see out or whatever.
And she decided she was gonna go to Wisconsin with us.
So we went to Wisconsin. Vince kept the girls supposedly
until she got up there to see if she got
(22:19):
settled in. She didn't even have a place to live
up there. We was just winging it. And this was
when I was fifteen. That's sick. So we made it
to Wisconsin and we ended up staying in the car
for like a night or two, and then a family
(22:39):
friend was already living up there. She allowed us to
stay in her apartment until we found the house, which
and then we finally did. We got us a house,
and once we did, Vince had said that she will
not be getting you know, he's not gonna bring my
sisters in there. So during this process he would went
(23:02):
to the court and had gotten custody filed for custody
of them, and then she decided to move back to
Virginia with him. And when we did, when they granted
him custody of my sisters, he had the Augusta County
sheriffs come out there and escorted us out of the house.
(23:24):
So after that we was split up again. You know.
My little brother ended up living with the preacher for
a little while, and then my older brother, Michael, he
was somewhere just running around. But we ended up moving
around between that time, which I think was the year
of two thousand. We usually we moved around about thirty
(23:47):
sometimes in a three year span. Ended up living in
a tent on a mountain for a little while. But
my brother, my older brother, he had gotten strung out
on drugs and actually came up and stole our temps
from us, so we actually had nothing to live in.
(24:07):
So yeah, oh that happened. Which during school, you know,
I was not able to stay in school because we
were always moving around in the hell we was. We
didn't even have some clothes or anywhere to take a
bath at. So what the hell would I go to
school for?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, so I didn't graduate then, but I did once
I got in prison. I immediately went and got my
ged and have continued to educate myself.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
So did you engage it and just hYP a criminal
activity as a juvenile?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
I did a little mischievous shit, like I would vandalize
stuff every now and then I got a drunken public
charge in Wisconsin underage drinking. And then I had another
drunken public when we went in Craigsville and I just
(25:14):
turned eighteen. I guess it was I had been It
was after February, so I think it was around February
of two thousand and three. I got a drunken public
charge and spent one night in a drunk tank in
the Augusta County jail. But as far as like, UH
(25:35):
been in and out of in trouble with the ball
and stuff, and that I was in trouble with the ball,
I had a bad name for my last name because
of my older brothers. My older brothers were always doing
crazy stuff, and even my younger brother he was always
(25:56):
in and out of like juvenile centers. My older brothers
was in and out of jail. But as I have never,
I was never in trouble besides those two drunken public charges,
one when I was like fourteen or fifteen, another one
when I was eighteen, And then this year I did
(26:18):
steal some gold spray paint from from the Dollar store
and was huffing gold spray paint. So the guy who
got me huffing, he's the one that turned me on
to huffing gold spray paint. Uh, he was younger than me,
so he was seventeen and I was eighteen. So they
(26:39):
gave me a contributing to a minor charge, which they
ended up all processing it because by the time I
went to court, I was in I was in here
for this charge.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So so the crime you're in prison for now, right,
that was when you were eight right, you were eighteen
years old when you read Okay, So before that, after eighteen,
did you engage in any connectivity prior to the case
you're in prison for now.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
No, like being caught for it or as far as
like just getting high and drinking and stuff like that,
I mean either.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Or anything that was like anything that was like breaking
the law that you might have been arrested for, not
arrested for it for that matter. Before they.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
No, I was not. I mean I never really got
in trouble with them. I was. I smoked weed and
I partied every now and then I would do I
did well. They called it crank at the time. I
think they call it meth now. But at the time
it was called crank. So I would do that like
on a that was very rare. On occasions, I did that, man,
(27:45):
But I mainly just smoked weed and drink alcohol and
huff gold spray painted from time to time.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Were you were your mom in vinced married at the
time the crime or where they had they been divorcement?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Then they was they was split up at that time.
They was never actually married.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Oh, they weren't married, though they probably lived.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I guess you can call it common law because they
was together for eight or nine years or something like that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Okay, all right, yeah, I just I just wasn't it
didn't really specify whether it was your mom's.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Boyfriend with my stepdad. I guess because we was there
so long, because you know, after after Vicki was born,
which is my youngest sister, after she was born, he
became so crazy. It seemed like where he didn't even
want my friends over at the house anymore. Okay, yah, yeah,
(28:50):
And then right after she was born. He wasn't long
after she was born that we were kicked out of
the house.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Let's talk about the incident that at cred on July
twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Two and three.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Can you walk me through everything that led up to
the shooting death of your mom's boyfriend, Vince McDorman and
what the aftermath was of that shooting.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Well, do you want me to start with the day?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, could you start with what led up to it,
like what like what possessed you to break into the
house and everything like that. Can you talk about did
you talk about what actually led up to it and
then talk about the actual incident after that?
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So probably a day or two before that, my sister
had my oldest sister, she was ten at the time,
were he was. I used to I would go down
there and do some work around the house and stuff.
So I was able to play with my sister. So
(29:56):
now you know, that was all I waited. I would
be able to visit with him. And so they got
this little place called they called it the Crawldad or
the Crawdad Hunting Place or what. So there was a
little spot in the creek where they would go down to.
He would take them down there and they would swim
(30:17):
in the creek and stuff. So after we got down
playing out in the field one they was, you know,
rather playing basketball with him and stuff. I was getting
ready to leave and she was like, they was wanting
to go down to this Crawldad hunting place. And I said, well,
I'll meet y'all down there. And my older sister, Marianna,
(30:40):
she wanted to walk down with me. She was so
she asked her dad. She was like, can I believe
walk down with him with him? And he was like,
at first, he wasn't more letter and then he said, okay,
He's like you can. He said, but if you like,
if you stop or if you do anything he said,
I'm he said, I'll bust your fucking ass. So he
(31:01):
said he had to get the girls, the other two
girls ready to go down there. And you know that
something didn't sink in at a time. So we walk
on down. We go down the road, and she starts
telling me all the things that he's doing with them.
You know, she told me to promise that I'd never
(31:23):
tell anybody, and so she tells me and everything that
is happening to them, some of that stuff that happened
to me when I was younger. Uh, and then of
course there was worse things that was happening to them.
So I asked her. I was like, oh, he said,
you mean to tell me that he's probably back there
doing something like that with him now, And she was
(31:45):
like probably. And that's when it realized they didn't need
to change any clothes because they was already in their
playing clothes. They was already in the clothes. She was
wearing the same type of clothes they were. There was
no need to take them in the house. So she
told me that once, once she got a little bit older,
(32:07):
he would make her go outside outside in the rain
or whatever and pick up trash outside and he would
keep them to inside and then another two they would
talk about what all they was having done to them.
But so we fast forward to uh, that night, I
(32:27):
was riding around with my buddy Randy, and he was
wanting he was wanting some money. So and you know,
Vincent offered he had offered me five hundred dollars to
go testify against Mom and courts so that she would
never get custody of my sister's ease. And he wanted
me to say that she was she was living with
(32:50):
a man who had abused my sisters, which was a
complete life.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
She wanted me to say that she had she was
always drunk and you know, didn't have any place to live,
which at the time was we had him. He was
actually living in a trailer for the first time in
a while. But so I didn't agree to that. I
didn't agree that I would go to court. But he
(33:17):
pulled out this whole stack of you know, one hundred
dollars bills and stuff flashed him at me, talking about
all this can be yours if you had just testified
against him. Uh. So when Randy had asked me, he
was like, we need he said, I'm trying to find
some money. Uh, so that we he wants to go
to the beach. So I told him. I was like, well,
(33:38):
I said, if you want. I said, he's got some money,
you can go there and get it. And so it
ended up being like, We're going to go there and
get that money. Uh. The problem was that one I
got into the house, I had actually got into the house. Uh.
(33:59):
And and while I'm in there, I had changed my
mind and was getting ready to leave. And then that's
when I heard my sister, my youngest sister. I heard
her in there start crying. I was actually leaving out
of the house when all this happened, so I turned
back around. I was like, what the hell? So I
(34:21):
turned back and went back down the hallway, and there's
a light that kind of shines into his bedroom. When
I seen that, I looked into the bedroom and I
seen him over top of her with his hands in
between her legs. And that's so that's when I snapped.
(34:43):
I actually don't even remember as far as I shooting,
and I don't even remember that. I don't remember putting
a bullet in the gun. I had a bullet in
my pocket, and it's a both action rifle. So I
did not. You know, I don't remember for any of
that part. I remember. All I can remember is the
rifle rising. I can remember that little bit. And then uh,
(35:09):
and then it was kind of like we just blackness.
So when I realized what I had done, I actually
I had ran out of the house. Uh. But then
I turned back around and went back in there, and
that's I checked on my little sister. She went back
(35:31):
to sleep, and then I grabbed his check book and
left the house. Got back in the car with Randy,
and I threw him the check book and I was like, here,
that is Uh. That was the rock bottom part of
(35:54):
my life. But well after that, we did go knew.
We drove to We went and picked up by one
of my friends, Charlie. We went and picked Tempo, and
then we went to We ended up driving to a Walmart.
(36:15):
We tried to cash this check. There was a check
already written in his check book. So we went to
a Walmart and we tried to cash the check. There.
They wouldn't take it. I was I was under the
assumption that if you spent a little bit of that
day would cash it. But they said it was too
much to cash. So we had a stereo system or
(36:39):
something that they was going to buy a little bit
that didn't work out, so Randy drove to Rockbridge, Counting
to a VB and T bank and he cashed it
through the drive through thing where the little window does
the little you know, that little cylinder.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thing that you put in there.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So uh, he he cashed to check there, and then
we drove to the beach. We went to the beach
and all of that money on rads and just you know,
then we came back. We came back from the beach
and ended up getting arrested that morning or the next
(37:26):
morning following morning, I ended up getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So correct me if I'm wrong, But it sounds like
this was this was gonna be like a like a
breaking an entering clash robbery, but you changed your mind
last minute until you had witness. You're supposed to be
an abused that's what it just could dropped and killed him.
Like what is that? Does that sound right?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Like?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
It was? It was supposed to be a robbery, but.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
It was well it was, yeah, I was h heading there
to get the money, but it really yeah, it ended
up turning into way more than a robbery.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Okay, yeah, because I because I'm looking at your uh
your you're I don't know what you call it, the
I guess the never random opinion the procedural history, and
it says that you pleaded guilty to breaking and entering
with the deadly weapon with the intense to commit robbery, robbery,
and premeditator during the commission of a robbery. So that's
(38:29):
that's why I was just curious about that.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh yeah, they are my lawyers. I was. They had
me plead guilty too, because they told me, they said,
there's no way you would never get less in a
life sentence. The only thing that you're going to do
is get the death penalty. So this is my lawyer's
telling me this. And uh so, then they had my
(38:53):
mom tell me that you're that she didn't want to
lose another son. She didn't want to have another son
being killed or whatever. So and then they're threatened me
with the death enity. So at the time, you know,
and I was on they had me on a syrup, well,
a psychotropic med uh of zombie fied in the courtroom
(39:14):
that day. So I ended up signing this plea agreement
for the maximum allowed sentence the They was not pushing
for the death penalty. They just wanted to get the
case over with because, uh, you know, I had admitted
guilty in the interrogation room when I when they interrogated me,
(39:36):
I admitted the reason that I shot him was the
reason that I caught I caught him molesting my youngest sister. So, uh,
there was nearly no defense. And then my attorneys did
not offer any defense in my transcripts they had you know,
you can see that when the judge asked if they
had any defense for me, they had nothing. I had
(39:59):
asked them about out, you know, an insanity flea or
something like that, or a crime of passion. They said
that that's only for gay lovers or lovers that they said,
so yeah, So my lawyers were like, you wouldn't having
(40:22):
a love affair with him, were you? And I was like,
they was like, well, that's only for that, That's only
for people who were having an affair with each other.
So I ended up signing the flea. Did not know
it was for three consecutive life sentences. I thought it
was for my public defender, as an investigator, John Grico,
(40:44):
who told me he said it was a he said,
it's only a one life sentence and you have the
possibility of parole after twenty five years, which under the
old law that was the case. But yeah, I didn't
know that it was gonna be for three consecutive life
sentences with no possibility or for all. And now like Virginia,
(41:07):
you don't even have as the death enalty. So I
truly do have the maximum allowed sentence. That is no
plea deal at all. It was a horrible deal. And
my sisters were not they they didn't allow my sisters
to come and testify for me. They said they were
too young at the time. And then their grandma. Would
(41:30):
you know, their dad's mom had custody of them at
that point and she was not allowing them to come
into the courtroom. So fat, I don't know. So yeah,
now I've had uh sort of vice twenty almost twenty
two years. I have been trying to prove that I
(41:53):
am not some psycho or anything. I've been trying to
show that I can actually return to society.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Do you remember your sister's reaction initially after you had
shot Vince or was it just like a complete like.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Just like I was five years old at the time.
So I went in there. I went into the room
and I put my hand on her on her rack
(42:33):
she would and she went right on to sleep. She
was asked her if she was all right, and she said, yes,
she said, and she went on to sleep. I wish
I would have just stayed there and called the cops.
Myself in a state of panic, so I ran out
(42:53):
of the house so and then, which ended up leaving
my older sister. She ended up finding it. I'm like, man,
but yeah, So as far as her initial reaction was,
she yeah, she went right back to sleep.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
M So, how long after after the shooting took place
where you're arrested.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I think it was two days two days out later
because we went to the beach. Basically, I think the
investigators and stuff they just waited for us to come
back from the beach. I'm not going to I think
my code defends they had went to the police station
(43:49):
that Sunday morning. I'm not sure which day I got.
It was either Sunday or Monday morning. I'm not sure
which day I was actually arrested. That all the days
was kind of a blue or. I think it was
Sunday morning and eight thirty in the morning I think
is when I was arrested. My codefendants was at the
(44:13):
police station.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
One of them was.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There at five thirty or six thirty in the morning.
They had drove to the police station and as soon
as we got back from Virginia Beach and gave their
their statement, we brought up Sunday and then after they
gave their statement, that's when they came and arrested. You
(44:35):
just take something. I was asleep boat and uh in
my bedroom.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So the three life sentences, Uh did you take? Did
you take that to trial? Or is that a plea
deal that you had taken? Which was the three that was?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
That was a plea deal that I had taken, and
the judge, you know, they sentenced me. I took the
plea deal. It was the Vember seventeenth. I took the
plea deal and they sentenced me the same day. The
judge sentenced me. If I would I feel like if
I would have taken it to trial, I would have
gotten less time. But at the time I did not.
(45:18):
I was ignorant to the law and did not know.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
So after you were convicted and sentenced to three life sentences,
how did you react emotionally?
Speaker 3 (45:35):
I didn't really have a reaction because I really didn't
know I was what I was sentenced to until I
had gotten back to the jail when I seen my
face on the news. So when I seen that, because
you know, I was where I was on the seraph, well,
I was actually falling asleep during my court proceedings, couldn't
keep my eyes on. So I went back to the
(45:58):
jail and I was in the news and that's when
they was They had posted me on there, and when
I seen it, I was like, three consecutive life sentences.
Did not know what consecutive meant. I didn't know anything
like that. So the people that were in jail with me,
they explained it to me what that meant, and I
was like, hell no. So I ended up calling my attorney,
(46:20):
my bove defender. I called him and I told him
that I was like, I'm not I don't want that sentence.
So you know, that's a horrible sentence. And he said, well,
he said, we can appeal it, and so that's when
he appealed it. That I was not satisfied was my sentence.
(46:44):
Of course, they denied that pretty quick and he did
just to appeal part and then once the habeas corpus
came up, he was no longer my attorney, and I
was in prison and had no idea about the law.
(47:05):
So I ended up letting a let another inmate do
my habeas corpus, and uh, well that was that was
a mistake. Also ended up my habeas corpus was denied,
ended up getting time barred because I didn't get the
proper paperwork filed in time. Being at a supermax, it's
(47:26):
kind of hard to get all this stuff done, so
I was time barred on that. So yeah, so in
in Virginia, that's pretty much exhausted all of my remedies.
So the only thing I have gone right now is
that I can file for a pardon every every three years.
(47:50):
Well that averages out to every six to seven years.
If I can file for a party. They like to
come up in me. Come on, bro, I've had my
mom fucking did this back a damn years in twenty eighteen,
and it was denied in twenty twenty one, and then
I had to wait three years from the day that
I was denied. So now August to twenty twenty four
(48:12):
was when I was eligible to follow another partner and
it's it's being fouled now as we speak. What is
a point in me going through the rest of the
tools I'm going on.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
So, being that Vince was the father of your sisters,
did that affect your relationship with any of them after
the shooting had taken place, or any of your other
femin members to that matter.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
No, my sisters, you can you could ask if we
could ever get them to call you, because they will
tell you that I saved them, that I was I'm
a hero too. So as far as did it affect
(48:59):
my relations I mean, I guess it did somewhat as
far as like me not being able to see them
hardly ever anymore. But no, you know, they would. They
are trying to get me out, you know. Also, so
they're they're considered victims, I guess, you know, so they
(49:22):
you know if as victims of the crime, they are
asking for me to be released so that I can
be back out there with them.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
So do you feel that this situation has possibly brought
you closer with your sisters?
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Well, I mean if over time, it's starting to probably
take a toll, because you know, all the only thing
that I am is a voice on the other end
of a phone. Uh, you know, because I've been away
from them. So all my my sisters have already had
kids and that are grown now, so you know, their
(50:00):
lives have drifted. You know, my older sister, she ends up,
she ended up getting into uh, getting into drugs, real bad. Uh.
She's having a rough go of it, uh, in and
out of jail. Been my the middle sister, she's like
withdrawn from people. She don't like. She don't like to
(50:22):
have anybody around her kids. You know, she don't trust
people being around her kids. And then my youngest sister
she just don't trust. She don't trust me in in general.
But yeah, it's it's definitely as far as uh, if
I could be back out there. Yes, our relationship, it
has brought our family closer together. It's not very many
(50:50):
of us left, you know, it's a it's a few
of us. I have my three sisters and my mom.
That's who I have left out there, and then I've
got and then I've got my girlfriend who who lives
in Kansas and her family.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So nowadays, are you religious?
Speaker 3 (51:12):
No, I don't really put much into religion. I feel
like that religion is the reason for all of the
wars that we're having. So yeah, more of a spiritual
more of a spiritual gat not a religious gan.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Right right, Yeah, I understand that I'm a little bit
of the same way too. I'm not really religious, but
I'm more spiritual myself. Yeah. Have you been diagnosed with
any mental illnesses? No?
Speaker 3 (51:51):
No, I've never actually been checked for any mental illnesses.
I don't think. I don't even know how you get
checked for a mental illness or like some type of
tests to you. They they gave me that serp will
as psychotropic med but I didn't even see a damn
psych doctor to even get put on that. I told
(52:11):
him I couldn't sleep at night, and he gave me that.
Everybody else he gave elavil to, which was an antidepressant.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
If you're released into society one day, what do you
see yourself doing in life to ensure you don't end
up back in prison?
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Well, I would be Uh. I've got so many skills
as far as work skills, I can do anything I can.
I can do any job that's out there, as far
as construction or working on vehicles. I can do restaurant
stuff because I cooked. I've cooked in here for years.
(52:55):
I was head cook in the kitchen for years. I learned,
you know, I learned a lot of culinary skills doing
that I've got. I ended up getting my trade in
uh masonry, you know I can do that. I also
got it. Now I'm in I'm in a motorcycle repair class.
(53:18):
We learned in that trade. Job. Yeah, I mean, I'm
guaranteed a job when I walk out of here. You know,
my girlfriend's brother has his own business who will hire
me as soon as I come out. If I got
out tomorrow, I would have a job working with Yeah.
(53:40):
There is no way that I would ever do anything
to come back in. Yeah. Life's too beautiful, right.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
So is there anything that you would like the public
to know about yourself or this case.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Was the public to know about me? As far as
in my case, I'm still working on my case and
I'm still pushing for for clemency from the from the governor.
The governor we have right now is Governor Glenn Younkin.
I mean, it would be greatly appreciated if he would
(54:19):
partner about me. I'm still I'm still the same personality
I have. I love the joke, I love the laugh,
and ask anybody to notice me I nothing is serious,
even serious moments. They're not serious anymore. But everybody can Google.
(54:45):
If they go on my Facebook, you know, they can
get to know me even more, you know, going to
free Christopher Bennett. I don't know, there's a lot of
information on there about me, all the things that I've done,
And you know, I've mentored people who have been released
and have went on to lead successful lives, people who
(55:09):
were doing life in prison and installment plans and ended
up straightening up and staying out and staying out of trouble,
starting families. Yeah, I'm just I'm ready to start the
second part of my life, you know, a brand new
(55:30):
life out there. My entire past is gone. Everything from
my past has has been pretty much erased. Even the
houses I've lived in have been have been torn down.
So I've got nothing but a great future ahead, you know,
(55:52):
even now, Like even though I'm still in here, I've
got a great life. The only thing that is the
only thing that sucks is I'm still in prison. But
other than that, you know, I've got a great line.
I've got a family that loves me. I've got thousands
(56:13):
and thousands of supporters. They want to see me free
and I would like to meet them one day.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
That was my interview with Christopher Bennett. If you would
like to support the podcast, head on over to Unforbidden
truth dot org pick up some merch like a coffee mug,
a T shirt, a tank top, a sticker pack, and
much more. Thank you for listening, See you in the
next one.
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with convicted murderer Christopher Bennett. Christopher Bennett, an eighteen year
old from Craigsville, Virginia, was sentenced to eighteen hundred years
in prison after he shot and killed his stepfather, Vincent
McDorman on July twenty fifth, two thousand and three. Bennett
claimed that he discovered McDorman molested his six year old
(00:35):
half sister, Victoria, and acted in defensive hurt. At the time,
Bennett was given the choice between facing the death penalty
or accepting a plea deal that resulted in three consecutive
life sentences totally in eighteen hundred years. He accepted the
plea deal, which resulted in charges of capital murder, breaking
and entering with a deadly weapon, and robbery. The case
(00:56):
garnered significant attention due to the severity of Bennett's sentence
and the soircumstances surrounding the crime. Supporters argue that Bennett's
actions were a response to the abuse of his sister
and that the punishment is disproportionate. Victoria, now an adult,
has publicly supported her brother, stating that he saved her
from further abuse and calling him a hero. She has
also indicated that she was too young at the time
(01:17):
to fully understand her disclose the abuse, and that her
testimony was not adequately considered during the trial. Advocacy for
Bennet's release has grown over the years, with petitions of
massing over one hundred and fifty thousand signatures and public demonstrations,
including a notable rally outside the Governor's mansion in Richmond, Virginia.
The case received national attention when it was featured on
(01:39):
The Doctor phil Show, further highlighting the debate over his
lengthy sentence. Despite these efforts, clemency has not been granted,
and the case remains a point of contention regarding justice
and punishment. Critics of the prosecution argue that Bennett's legal
representation was inadequate, with claims that key evidence in psychological
evaluations were not properly considered. A state appointed psychologist report,
(02:02):
which suggested that Bennetts diminisimental capacity and history of abuse,
was reportedly not disclosed to his defense team until after
he pled guilty. This has led to questions about the
fairness of the trial and whether Bennett's actions were a
result of trauma induced psychological distress. Here's my interview with
Christopher Bennett.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Hello, this is a prepaid debit call from Chris at
the Virginia Department of Corrections Pocahontas State Correction. Well it was.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
My name was Christopher Bennett from Virginia. I grew up
in Augusta County and a little town called Craigsville. I
was raised yet I am Now I've been incarcerated since
two thousand and three July two thousand and three. I've
(03:00):
spent the last almost twenty two years in the Western
District of Virginia and in basically three different prisons. I
spent seventeen years at one prison, and now I'm at
a level three where this is the final level that
I can go to. I can either go any lower. Uh,
(03:23):
you know, I'm in the best situation that I can
be in as far as being in prison.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So can you recall any positive memories that they got
to you from your childhood?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh? Yeah, I've got loads of positive memories. You know.
Used to go camping and fishing, used to you know,
run around run around Craigsville with my friends and stuff.
We'd be running around in the mountains or even even
(03:57):
in the house that I grew up in. We used
to have we had we had a swimming pool and uh,
all of the neighborhood kids would come over and play.
It was it seemed like quite a few good memories.
You know. Went to theme parks with my friends. The
(04:19):
Chacotique Islands, which is off the coast of Virginia. I
used to go there with one of my friends when
I was real, I was real young man. I was
probably like seven or eight at the time. I used
to do a lot of a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What about any negative memories that stick out to you
from your childhood? Can you recall any negative memories?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh? Yeah, I mean, let's see, from my earliest memory
when my mom was still living with my dad, and
this was before well we had we were taken away
by Social services, and that was when I was probably
four years old, I think, so before that, I remember
(05:04):
my dad coming home drunk because he was bleeding out
of his eye. He grabbed the two seventy you know
at the time what he knows to seventy, but you know,
he grabbed a rifle off of the wall behind us
and was like waving it around and pointing it at
us and threatening to kill everybody. I remember when Social
(05:28):
Services they came and took us from took me and
my brothers. I had four other brothers. They came and
took us from our babysitters. So I didn't know who
they were. I thought we was being like kidnapped or something.
So they just came up and yanked us out of
(05:48):
our babysitters arms and put us in separate cars and
drove off. And and my mom she come in. She
come driving up the road crying, you know, saying how
don't take her babies? You know, we used to. We
was taking off some different foster homes. Had to stay
there for for a little while, and then we was
(06:13):
giving back to mom later on. And then that's when
she was with Evince. That's when she had met Vince.
That's my sister's dad. So I mean he used to
take me down. He used to take me to his
shop and let me work on all the cars and
stuff with him and all that stuff. So those was
all good memories. Let's see. Then Easton, you know, he
(06:41):
started being a piece of shit. But he would just
do a little weird shit, you know, playing well at nighttime,
he would like he would come up in to my
bedroom and he would come in there and he saw it.
Like first he says, started coming up her talking to me,
and then we'd started kickling me. And then eventually he
(07:04):
started playing with my genitals, you know, ship like that,
and then he would he would be sticking his finger
in my mouth, just fucking nasty ass sh it. So
those memories, I've got those memories which are horrible.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
And that and the Vince that's the that's the person
that passed away in.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
This cave, right, yeah, for this crime.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah crime, okay, So that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It progressed on through. I mean eventually he was leaving.
Eventually I would sleep with my gene I would sleep
with my jeans going fully closed. Uh you know, I
would try to have like somebody staying over at the
over in my house and a lot. When that was
(07:59):
after we moved out to craigs Will see, he was
living in Stanton and you know we didn't have no
friends that stayed over at that house. So but we uh,
one my first sister was born, we moved out to Craigsville,
and that was in like ninety three, I think nineteen
(08:19):
ninety three, and then I would try to have either
my little brother Calvin to stay in the room with
me or somebody like that. But then once I started
doing that, he would come in there and he would
he would beat me with his belt, playing with his belt,
(08:39):
he would wrap his He was super fat, so he
would take his belt off and he would hit me
with it and it would wrap around me because I
was a little tiny dude, seemingly for no reason. But
eventually it would you know, he stopped coming up there,
(09:01):
but I you know, I had to take the brunt
of then I got beat all the time. So so
I was taught not to show any emotions by him
because if I if I cried, he would beat me more,
if that makes sense. So I was so he would
beat me until I stopped crying. Those those were a
(09:25):
few horrible memories.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So was so, was that the extent of your childhood
abuse at the hands events or did you did you
stuffer any other type of abuse as a child growing up?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Oh? Yeah, no, he would uh as far as like
like sexual abuse or they was mainly him like uh
following my genitals, you know, uh, you know, putting his
fucking fingers in my mouth, he would take him blow
into my lungs, or he would make me hold my breath,
(09:59):
and so I was about to pass out, he would
put his hands over my face. You know, he never
took a bath, so his hands smelled like. His hands
smelled like. He smelled like cramping. So and his breath
never brushed. His teeth had smelled horrible. Made me feel
(10:21):
like my lungs was getting ready to bout. But then
us he used to tie me up. He used to
hog time me and throw me in a pool, and
then I would have to I would have to get untied.
You know, he couldn't come around there and get me
out of the water. He was he was too out
of shape. So he would tie me up, throw me
(10:44):
in the pool. I would have to untie myself and
climb out. And then when I'd climb out, I would
try to run by him and he would grab me
again and tie me up again and throw me in there. Uh.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
When he became an e N t At to Rescue squad,
he started using his medical supplies on the UH. He
would he would take like the adult sized tongue suppressor
and shove it. He would shove it down my throat
to make me dag. Uh he thought that was funny.
(11:19):
Or he would uh make me he would hold his
hand over my mouth until I couldn't hardly breathe, and
then when I did, when he did take his hand
off my mouth, he would hit me with a smell
of salt, which would take my breath away. So once
uh you know, and then once we got a little
bit older, he would he would lock food up into
(11:42):
in the van where we was not allowed to eat.
We wouldn't allowed to eat that food, just have any
food in the house.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
He said that food was for his uh for the girls,
which my three sisters at the time. It is so
we ended up having to break into the van and
if we wanted to eat, and uh yeah, so is so?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Is that about the extent of the abuse that you
endured as a child at the hands events or was
there anybody else in your life that was abusing you
at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Uh well, at that time, there was uh well my
h my older brother, my oldest brother actually uh abused
he had abused me. Wants also, of course I haven't
(12:49):
really spoken of that too much to anyone. There's like
two people who know that that my oldest brother and
used me so and uh yeah, that was in that
same house while he was living events I was. I
(13:10):
was super young. I was probably seven years old, maybe
eight years old. He was. He was a few years
older than me. He was. I guess he may have
been like thirteen fourteen. Uh so, yeah, he was. He
(13:32):
abused me sexually, maybe a uh, perform oral sex on him.
So yeah. But other than that, no, that was That
was about the extent of the abuse there, other than
(13:52):
being bullied in school when I was little. Who I
guess everybody gets bullied every now and then.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Okay, all right, so you mentioned you have quite a
few siblings that I know. You said you had three
sisters and at.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Least four brothers and three sisters.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
So so you have seven siblings.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, I've had three of our brothers have died, so
I've got one. I've got my oldest brother, have no
idea where he's at. I haven't spoke to him in
the years. And then I've got my three sisters. I've
talked to them on occasion. I talked to my youngest
(14:38):
sister more often. She was she was the one that
was in the house that night. She was the one
that was in his bed with him that night, and
I went.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So, okay, okay, were you close with your siblings growing up?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Yeah, that's pretty close with h three of my brothers.
My my youngest brother, Well, it's the brother that the
year younger than me, my brother Calvin. He died when
he was ten years old. I was eleven. So he
died from a heart failure. So yeah, he was like, well,
(15:21):
he was like bes friends. He was the one that
I had to sleep in the room with me. So
eventually we meama, well the first night did he uh, well,
he noticed that I was letting or I was having
Calvin sleep in the room with me. That's when he
come in there and then just straight beat hell out
of me with his fucking built And then my youngest
(15:47):
brother just died last year in a motorcycle accident. And
then my older brother Michael, so he died in twenty
twenty one. Him, his six year old boy, and his
girlfriend all died in a car accident. They ended up
(16:09):
rounding in a lake. Oh wow, Yeah, that was pretty
close with him.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So after you, after you got back home, after you
were out of the the the foster system or the
group home, whatever, it was what was your behavior like
at home as you were growing up? Like, how did
you behave at home?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Uh? Was? I was always I was always shy with drawn.
I didn't really I was always quiet, said to myself.
Even in school, didn't. I didn't really talk to a
I didn't have a whole lot of friends. I usually
had like one friend when I was in stanton On
(16:58):
growing up, I had one friend in name Alex that
we went to. You know, I used to stay at
his house a little bit here and there. His family
is the one that used to take us to Chickatigue Islands.
They had like a summer house down there, and we
would go down there during the summer. And then once
(17:20):
we moved to Craigsville, I didn't I lost contact with him.
And then, you know, in Craigsville, I had more friends,
you know, because a small little town, so everybody pretty
much knew everybody. It was in second grade when we
moved out there.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
What was your behavior like in school? Focusing more on
your middle school and high school years, like how did
you behave in middle school and high school?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I didn't really do a whole lot. I was actually
if if I was part of a real school that
was actually wanting me to pass with good grades. I
would not have passed. I had terrible grades. I was
missing school all the time, you know, sleeping in class,
(18:11):
didn't want to do the work. I mean I knew
the work, I just didn't I didn't do it. You know.
I was getting incomplete on my report card. So but
for some reason I was passed. I was passed through.
So I actually made it to the tenth grade. I
never did show back up in the tenth grade. But
(18:32):
I actually made it to the tenth grade by not
doing my work. And uh, you know they do that
with a lot out there in those schools. They did
a lot around Craigsville. People from Craigsville, they would just
pass them through school, even if they had some horrible grades. Uh,
(18:54):
let's see, I got I want to say that in
sixth grade, I had to go to a drug program.
I had to actually visit a prison. And but I
had got caught with talanol five hundred. It was just
regular talanow. I got caught with that in school. So
they sent me through a drug program. Not for a while,
(19:23):
but yeah, I had to complete that. I was suspended
from school for acting up in class, and you know
the teacher. He would he would say some type of
slick comments to me, and then I would say slick
slick ship back to him. Then he would send me
to the principal, or he would send me out into
(19:44):
the hallway and I would have to sit out there. Well,
then I he came to give me my hallway past
one time to go to the principal, and I held
him in his classroom, wouldn't let him out because he
had locked me out of the classroom. And then they
so they called the school It was the school cop
(20:04):
at the time, and they called him up there and
he took me home. I couldn't come back to school
until my mom took me into have a meeting with
the principal. Well, my mom had no vehicle, so pretty
much didn't go back to school that year. And I
still passed. I still made it to the next grade,
(20:26):
but I didn't like as far as I getting in
fights and stuff like that. I've probably been in my
two school fights that I didn't even get suspended for.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Did you graduate in high school?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
No? No, I was in prison before I was able
to graduate high school. I got my ged when I
was at when I was at Wallace Ridge Say Prison,
which is a supermax. I got my ged up there.
That was in two thousand and five, I think, where
(21:07):
I was eighteen. I wasn't supposed to graduate high school until,
like I think, I was a class of four. I
was supposed to graduate, but I was in prison in
two thousand and three. So but I made it to
the tenth grade day, just never showed back up. So
I quit then because I was actually i'd become homeless.
(21:30):
I didn't have me and my family, well, me, my mom,
and my little brother EJ. We all became almost after
we was kicked out. Vince had kicked us out of
the house. You know, he went and got custody. Said well,
let's so let's rewind to when we was living with Vince.
(21:56):
I don't know how everything went on, but you know,
Mom and him, I guess didn't see out or whatever.
And she decided she was gonna go to Wisconsin with us.
So we went to Wisconsin. Vince kept the girls supposedly
until she got up there to see if she got
(22:19):
settled in. She didn't even have a place to live
up there. We was just winging it. And this was
when I was fifteen. That's sick. So we made it
to Wisconsin and we ended up staying in the car
for like a night or two, and then a family
(22:39):
friend was already living up there. She allowed us to
stay in her apartment until we found the house, which
and then we finally did. We got us a house,
and once we did, Vince had said that she will
not be getting you know, he's not gonna bring my
sisters in there. So during this process he would went
(23:02):
to the court and had gotten custody filed for custody
of them, and then she decided to move back to
Virginia with him. And when we did, when they granted
him custody of my sisters, he had the Augusta County
sheriffs come out there and escorted us out of the house.
(23:24):
So after that we was split up again. You know.
My little brother ended up living with the preacher for
a little while, and then my older brother, Michael, he
was somewhere just running around. But we ended up moving
around between that time, which I think was the year
of two thousand. We usually we moved around about thirty
(23:47):
sometimes in a three year span. Ended up living in
a tent on a mountain for a little while. But
my brother, my older brother, he had gotten strung out
on drugs and actually came up and stole our temps
from us, so we actually had nothing to live in.
(24:07):
So yeah, oh that happened. Which during school, you know,
I was not able to stay in school because we
were always moving around in the hell we was. We
didn't even have some clothes or anywhere to take a
bath at. So what the hell would I go to
school for?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yeah, so I didn't graduate then, but I did once
I got in prison. I immediately went and got my
ged and have continued to educate myself.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
So did you engage it and just hYP a criminal
activity as a juvenile?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
I did a little mischievous shit, like I would vandalize
stuff every now and then I got a drunken public
charge in Wisconsin underage drinking. And then I had another
drunken public when we went in Craigsville and I just
(25:14):
turned eighteen. I guess it was I had been It
was after February, so I think it was around February
of two thousand and three. I got a drunken public
charge and spent one night in a drunk tank in
the Augusta County jail. But as far as like, UH
(25:35):
been in and out of in trouble with the ball
and stuff, and that I was in trouble with the ball,
I had a bad name for my last name because
of my older brothers. My older brothers were always doing
crazy stuff, and even my younger brother he was always
(25:56):
in and out of like juvenile centers. My older brothers
was in and out of jail. But as I have never,
I was never in trouble besides those two drunken public charges,
one when I was like fourteen or fifteen, another one
when I was eighteen, And then this year I did
(26:18):
steal some gold spray paint from from the Dollar store
and was huffing gold spray paint. So the guy who
got me huffing, he's the one that turned me on
to huffing gold spray paint. Uh, he was younger than me,
so he was seventeen and I was eighteen. So they
(26:39):
gave me a contributing to a minor charge, which they
ended up all processing it because by the time I
went to court, I was in I was in here
for this charge.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So so the crime you're in prison for now, right,
that was when you were eight right, you were eighteen
years old when you read Okay, So before that, after eighteen,
did you engage in any connectivity prior to the case
you're in prison for now.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
No, like being caught for it or as far as
like just getting high and drinking and stuff like that,
I mean either.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Or anything that was like anything that was like breaking
the law that you might have been arrested for, not
arrested for it for that matter. Before they.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
No, I was not. I mean I never really got
in trouble with them. I was. I smoked weed and
I partied every now and then I would do I
did well. They called it crank at the time. I
think they call it meth now. But at the time
it was called crank. So I would do that like
on a that was very rare. On occasions, I did that, man,
(27:45):
But I mainly just smoked weed and drink alcohol and
huff gold spray painted from time to time.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Were you were your mom in vinced married at the
time the crime or where they had they been divorcement?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Then they was they was split up at that time.
They was never actually married.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Oh, they weren't married, though they probably lived.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I guess you can call it common law because they
was together for eight or nine years or something like that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Okay, all right, yeah, I just I just wasn't it
didn't really specify whether it was your mom's.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Boyfriend with my stepdad. I guess because we was there
so long, because you know, after after Vicki was born,
which is my youngest sister, after she was born, he
became so crazy. It seemed like where he didn't even
want my friends over at the house anymore. Okay, yah, yeah,
(28:50):
And then right after she was born. He wasn't long
after she was born that we were kicked out of
the house.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Let's talk about the incident that at cred on July
twenty fifth.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Two and three.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Can you walk me through everything that led up to
the shooting death of your mom's boyfriend, Vince McDorman and
what the aftermath was of that shooting.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Well, do you want me to start with the day?
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, could you start with what led up to it,
like what like what possessed you to break into the
house and everything like that. Can you talk about did
you talk about what actually led up to it and
then talk about the actual incident after that?
Speaker 3 (29:34):
So probably a day or two before that, my sister
had my oldest sister, she was ten at the time,
were he was. I used to I would go down
there and do some work around the house and stuff.
So I was able to play with my sister. So
(29:56):
now you know, that was all I waited. I would
be able to visit with him. And so they got
this little place called they called it the Crawldad or
the Crawdad Hunting Place or what. So there was a
little spot in the creek where they would go down to.
He would take them down there and they would swim
(30:17):
in the creek and stuff. So after we got down
playing out in the field one they was, you know,
rather playing basketball with him and stuff. I was getting
ready to leave and she was like, they was wanting
to go down to this Crawldad hunting place. And I said, well,
I'll meet y'all down there. And my older sister, Marianna,
(30:40):
she wanted to walk down with me. She was so
she asked her dad. She was like, can I believe
walk down with him with him? And he was like,
at first, he wasn't more letter and then he said, okay,
He's like you can. He said, but if you like,
if you stop or if you do anything he said,
I'm he said, I'll bust your fucking ass. So he
(31:01):
said he had to get the girls, the other two
girls ready to go down there. And you know that
something didn't sink in at a time. So we walk
on down. We go down the road, and she starts
telling me all the things that he's doing with them.
You know, she told me to promise that I'd never
(31:23):
tell anybody, and so she tells me and everything that
is happening to them, some of that stuff that happened
to me when I was younger. Uh, and then of
course there was worse things that was happening to them.
So I asked her. I was like, oh, he said,
you mean to tell me that he's probably back there
doing something like that with him now, And she was
(31:45):
like probably. And that's when it realized they didn't need
to change any clothes because they was already in their
playing clothes. They was already in the clothes. She was
wearing the same type of clothes they were. There was
no need to take them in the house. So she
told me that once, once she got a little bit older,
(32:07):
he would make her go outside outside in the rain
or whatever and pick up trash outside and he would
keep them to inside and then another two they would
talk about what all they was having done to them.
But so we fast forward to uh, that night, I
(32:27):
was riding around with my buddy Randy, and he was
wanting he was wanting some money. So and you know,
Vincent offered he had offered me five hundred dollars to
go testify against Mom and courts so that she would
never get custody of my sister's ease. And he wanted
me to say that she was she was living with
(32:50):
a man who had abused my sisters, which was a
complete life.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
She wanted me to say that she had she was
always drunk and you know, didn't have any place to live,
which at the time was we had him. He was
actually living in a trailer for the first time in
a while. But so I didn't agree to that. I
didn't agree that I would go to court. But he
(33:17):
pulled out this whole stack of you know, one hundred
dollars bills and stuff flashed him at me, talking about
all this can be yours if you had just testified
against him. Uh. So when Randy had asked me, he
was like, we need he said, I'm trying to find
some money. Uh, so that we he wants to go
to the beach. So I told him. I was like, well,
(33:38):
I said, if you want. I said, he's got some money,
you can go there and get it. And so it
ended up being like, We're going to go there and
get that money. Uh. The problem was that one I
got into the house, I had actually got into the house. Uh.
(33:59):
And and while I'm in there, I had changed my
mind and was getting ready to leave. And then that's
when I heard my sister, my youngest sister. I heard
her in there start crying. I was actually leaving out
of the house when all this happened, so I turned
back around. I was like, what the hell? So I
(34:21):
turned back and went back down the hallway, and there's
a light that kind of shines into his bedroom. When
I seen that, I looked into the bedroom and I
seen him over top of her with his hands in
between her legs. And that's so that's when I snapped.
(34:43):
I actually don't even remember as far as I shooting,
and I don't even remember that. I don't remember putting
a bullet in the gun. I had a bullet in
my pocket, and it's a both action rifle. So I
did not. You know, I don't remember for any of
that part. I remember. All I can remember is the
rifle rising. I can remember that little bit. And then uh,
(35:09):
and then it was kind of like we just blackness.
So when I realized what I had done, I actually
I had ran out of the house. Uh. But then
I turned back around and went back in there, and
that's I checked on my little sister. She went back
(35:31):
to sleep, and then I grabbed his check book and
left the house. Got back in the car with Randy,
and I threw him the check book and I was like, here,
that is Uh. That was the rock bottom part of
(35:54):
my life. But well after that, we did go knew.
We drove to We went and picked up by one
of my friends, Charlie. We went and picked Tempo, and
then we went to We ended up driving to a Walmart.
(36:15):
We tried to cash this check. There was a check
already written in his check book. So we went to
a Walmart and we tried to cash the check. There.
They wouldn't take it. I was I was under the
assumption that if you spent a little bit of that
day would cash it. But they said it was too
much to cash. So we had a stereo system or
(36:39):
something that they was going to buy a little bit
that didn't work out, so Randy drove to Rockbridge, Counting
to a VB and T bank and he cashed it
through the drive through thing where the little window does
the little you know, that little cylinder.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thing that you put in there.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So uh, he he cashed to check there, and then
we drove to the beach. We went to the beach
and all of that money on rads and just you know,
then we came back. We came back from the beach
and ended up getting arrested that morning or the next
(37:26):
morning following morning, I ended up getting arrested.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
So correct me if I'm wrong, But it sounds like
this was this was gonna be like a like a
breaking an entering clash robbery, but you changed your mind
last minute until you had witness. You're supposed to be
an abused that's what it just could dropped and killed him.
Like what is that? Does that sound right?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Like?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
It was? It was supposed to be a robbery, but.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
It was well it was, yeah, I was h heading there
to get the money, but it really yeah, it ended
up turning into way more than a robbery.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Okay, yeah, because I because I'm looking at your uh
your you're I don't know what you call it, the
I guess the never random opinion the procedural history, and
it says that you pleaded guilty to breaking and entering
with the deadly weapon with the intense to commit robbery, robbery,
and premeditator during the commission of a robbery. So that's
(38:29):
that's why I was just curious about that.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh yeah, they are my lawyers. I was. They had
me plead guilty too, because they told me, they said,
there's no way you would never get less in a
life sentence. The only thing that you're going to do
is get the death penalty. So this is my lawyer's
telling me this. And uh so, then they had my
(38:53):
mom tell me that you're that she didn't want to
lose another son. She didn't want to have another son
being killed or whatever. So and then they're threatened me
with the death enity. So at the time, you know,
and I was on they had me on a syrup, well,
a psychotropic med uh of zombie fied in the courtroom
(39:14):
that day. So I ended up signing this plea agreement
for the maximum allowed sentence the They was not pushing
for the death penalty. They just wanted to get the
case over with because, uh, you know, I had admitted
guilty in the interrogation room when I when they interrogated me,
(39:36):
I admitted the reason that I shot him was the
reason that I caught I caught him molesting my youngest sister. So, uh,
there was nearly no defense. And then my attorneys did
not offer any defense in my transcripts they had you know,
you can see that when the judge asked if they
had any defense for me, they had nothing. I had
(39:59):
asked them about out, you know, an insanity flea or
something like that, or a crime of passion. They said
that that's only for gay lovers or lovers that they said,
so yeah, So my lawyers were like, you wouldn't having
(40:22):
a love affair with him, were you? And I was like,
they was like, well, that's only for that, That's only
for people who were having an affair with each other.
So I ended up signing the flea. Did not know
it was for three consecutive life sentences. I thought it
was for my public defender, as an investigator, John Grico,
(40:44):
who told me he said it was a he said,
it's only a one life sentence and you have the
possibility of parole after twenty five years, which under the
old law that was the case. But yeah, I didn't
know that it was gonna be for three consecutive life
sentences with no possibility or for all. And now like Virginia,
(41:07):
you don't even have as the death enalty. So I
truly do have the maximum allowed sentence. That is no
plea deal at all. It was a horrible deal. And
my sisters were not they they didn't allow my sisters
to come and testify for me. They said they were
too young at the time. And then their grandma. Would
(41:30):
you know, their dad's mom had custody of them at
that point and she was not allowing them to come
into the courtroom. So fat, I don't know. So yeah,
now I've had uh sort of vice twenty almost twenty
two years. I have been trying to prove that I
(41:53):
am not some psycho or anything. I've been trying to
show that I can actually return to society.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Do you remember your sister's reaction initially after you had
shot Vince or was it just like a complete like.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Just like I was five years old at the time.
So I went in there. I went into the room
and I put my hand on her on her rack
(42:33):
she would and she went right on to sleep. She
was asked her if she was all right, and she said, yes,
she said, and she went on to sleep. I wish
I would have just stayed there and called the cops.
Myself in a state of panic, so I ran out
(42:53):
of the house so and then, which ended up leaving
my older sister. She ended up finding it. I'm like, man,
but yeah, So as far as her initial reaction was,
she yeah, she went right back to sleep.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
M So, how long after after the shooting took place
where you're arrested.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I think it was two days two days out later
because we went to the beach. Basically, I think the
investigators and stuff they just waited for us to come
back from the beach. I'm not going to I think
my code defends they had went to the police station
(43:49):
that Sunday morning. I'm not sure which day I got.
It was either Sunday or Monday morning. I'm not sure
which day I was actually arrested. That all the days
was kind of a blue or. I think it was
Sunday morning and eight thirty in the morning I think
is when I was arrested. My codefendants was at the
(44:13):
police station.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
One of them was.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There at five thirty or six thirty in the morning.
They had drove to the police station and as soon
as we got back from Virginia Beach and gave their
their statement, we brought up Sunday and then after they
gave their statement, that's when they came and arrested. You
(44:35):
just take something. I was asleep boat and uh in
my bedroom.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So the three life sentences, Uh did you take? Did
you take that to trial? Or is that a plea
deal that you had taken? Which was the three that was?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
That was a plea deal that I had taken, and
the judge, you know, they sentenced me. I took the
plea deal. It was the Vember seventeenth. I took the
plea deal and they sentenced me the same day. The
judge sentenced me. If I would I feel like if
I would have taken it to trial, I would have
gotten less time. But at the time I did not.
(45:18):
I was ignorant to the law and did not know.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
So after you were convicted and sentenced to three life sentences,
how did you react emotionally?
Speaker 3 (45:35):
I didn't really have a reaction because I really didn't
know I was what I was sentenced to until I
had gotten back to the jail when I seen my
face on the news. So when I seen that, because
you know, I was where I was on the seraph, well,
I was actually falling asleep during my court proceedings, couldn't
keep my eyes on. So I went back to the
(45:58):
jail and I was in the news and that's when
they was They had posted me on there, and when
I seen it, I was like, three consecutive life sentences.
Did not know what consecutive meant. I didn't know anything
like that. So the people that were in jail with me,
they explained it to me what that meant, and I
was like, hell no. So I ended up calling my attorney,
(46:20):
my bove defender. I called him and I told him
that I was like, I'm not I don't want that sentence.
So you know, that's a horrible sentence. And he said, well,
he said, we can appeal it, and so that's when
he appealed it. That I was not satisfied was my sentence.
(46:44):
Of course, they denied that pretty quick and he did
just to appeal part and then once the habeas corpus
came up, he was no longer my attorney, and I
was in prison and had no idea about the law.
(47:05):
So I ended up letting a let another inmate do
my habeas corpus, and uh, well that was that was
a mistake. Also ended up my habeas corpus was denied,
ended up getting time barred because I didn't get the
proper paperwork filed in time. Being at a supermax, it's
(47:26):
kind of hard to get all this stuff done, so
I was time barred on that. So yeah, so in
in Virginia, that's pretty much exhausted all of my remedies.
So the only thing I have gone right now is
that I can file for a pardon every every three years.
(47:50):
Well that averages out to every six to seven years.
If I can file for a party. They like to
come up in me. Come on, bro, I've had my
mom fucking did this back a damn years in twenty eighteen,
and it was denied in twenty twenty one, and then
I had to wait three years from the day that
I was denied. So now August to twenty twenty four
(48:12):
was when I was eligible to follow another partner and
it's it's being fouled now as we speak. What is
a point in me going through the rest of the
tools I'm going on.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
So, being that Vince was the father of your sisters,
did that affect your relationship with any of them after
the shooting had taken place, or any of your other
femin members to that matter.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
No, my sisters, you can you could ask if we
could ever get them to call you, because they will
tell you that I saved them, that I was I'm
a hero too. So as far as did it affect
(48:59):
my relations I mean, I guess it did somewhat as
far as like me not being able to see them
hardly ever anymore. But no, you know, they would. They
are trying to get me out, you know. Also, so
they're they're considered victims, I guess, you know, so they
(49:22):
you know if as victims of the crime, they are
asking for me to be released so that I can
be back out there with them.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
So do you feel that this situation has possibly brought
you closer with your sisters?
Speaker 3 (49:39):
Well, I mean if over time, it's starting to probably
take a toll, because you know, all the only thing
that I am is a voice on the other end
of a phone. Uh, you know, because I've been away
from them. So all my my sisters have already had
kids and that are grown now, so you know, their
(50:00):
lives have drifted. You know, my older sister, she ends up,
she ended up getting into uh, getting into drugs, real bad. Uh.
She's having a rough go of it, uh, in and
out of jail. Been my the middle sister, she's like
withdrawn from people. She don't like. She don't like to
(50:22):
have anybody around her kids. You know, she don't trust
people being around her kids. And then my youngest sister
she just don't trust. She don't trust me in in general.
But yeah, it's it's definitely as far as uh, if
I could be back out there. Yes, our relationship, it
has brought our family closer together. It's not very many
(50:50):
of us left, you know, it's a it's a few
of us. I have my three sisters and my mom.
That's who I have left out there, and then I've
got and then I've got my girlfriend who who lives
in Kansas and her family.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So nowadays, are you religious?
Speaker 3 (51:12):
No, I don't really put much into religion. I feel
like that religion is the reason for all of the
wars that we're having. So yeah, more of a spiritual
more of a spiritual gat not a religious gan.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Right right, Yeah, I understand that I'm a little bit
of the same way too. I'm not really religious, but
I'm more spiritual myself. Yeah. Have you been diagnosed with
any mental illnesses? No?
Speaker 3 (51:51):
No, I've never actually been checked for any mental illnesses.
I don't think. I don't even know how you get
checked for a mental illness or like some type of
tests to you. They they gave me that serp will
as psychotropic med but I didn't even see a damn
psych doctor to even get put on that. I told
(52:11):
him I couldn't sleep at night, and he gave me that.
Everybody else he gave elavil to, which was an antidepressant.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
If you're released into society one day, what do you
see yourself doing in life to ensure you don't end
up back in prison?
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Well, I would be Uh. I've got so many skills
as far as work skills, I can do anything I can.
I can do any job that's out there, as far
as construction or working on vehicles. I can do restaurant
stuff because I cooked. I've cooked in here for years.
(52:55):
I was head cook in the kitchen for years. I learned,
you know, I learned a lot of culinary skills doing
that I've got. I ended up getting my trade in
uh masonry, you know I can do that. I also
got it. Now I'm in I'm in a motorcycle repair class.
(53:18):
We learned in that trade. Job. Yeah, I mean, I'm
guaranteed a job when I walk out of here. You know,
my girlfriend's brother has his own business who will hire
me as soon as I come out. If I got
out tomorrow, I would have a job working with Yeah.
(53:40):
There is no way that I would ever do anything
to come back in. Yeah. Life's too beautiful, right.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
So is there anything that you would like the public
to know about yourself or this case.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Was the public to know about me? As far as
in my case, I'm still working on my case and
I'm still pushing for for clemency from the from the governor.
The governor we have right now is Governor Glenn Younkin.
I mean, it would be greatly appreciated if he would
(54:19):
partner about me. I'm still I'm still the same personality
I have. I love the joke, I love the laugh,
and ask anybody to notice me I nothing is serious,
even serious moments. They're not serious anymore. But everybody can Google.
(54:45):
If they go on my Facebook, you know, they can
get to know me even more, you know, going to
free Christopher Bennett. I don't know, there's a lot of
information on there about me, all the things that I've done,
And you know, I've mentored people who have been released
and have went on to lead successful lives, people who
(55:09):
were doing life in prison and installment plans and ended
up straightening up and staying out and staying out of trouble,
starting families. Yeah, I'm just I'm ready to start the
second part of my life, you know, a brand new
(55:30):
life out there. My entire past is gone. Everything from
my past has has been pretty much erased. Even the
houses I've lived in have been have been torn down.
So I've got nothing but a great future ahead, you know,
(55:52):
even now, Like even though I'm still in here, I've
got a great life. The only thing that is the
only thing that sucks is I'm still in prison. But
other than that, you know, I've got a great line.
I've got a family that loves me. I've got thousands
(56:13):
and thousands of supporters. They want to see me free
and I would like to meet them one day.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
That was my interview with Christopher Bennett. If you would
like to support the podcast, head on over to Unforbidden
truth dot org pick up some merch like a coffee mug,
a T shirt, a tank top, a sticker pack, and
much more. Thank you for listening, See you in the
next one.
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