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Jury hears first day of testimony in Dorsey's life or death trial
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By ROGER MEISSEN
The Fulton Sun
COLUMBIA - Through a shroud of sorrow, tears spelled out the story and aftermath of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie's murder nearly two years ago in the first day of trial proceedings for Brian Dorsey.
Dorsey - Sarah's cousin - pleaded guilty in March to both murders that occurred Dec. 23, 2006, at the Bonnie home in rural New Bloomfield while their child, 4-year-old Jade, was somewhere in the house. This jury will now determine whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison.
The prosecution called 31 witnesses to the stand Wednesday with little rebuttal from the defense on the facts of the case.
“What hurts me most - the deepest thing here - is the betrayal,” Benjamin's father Gregg Bonnie said. “They were betrayed when they lent a helping hand.
Ben did it because he loved his wife, she helped because she loved her cousin and (Dorsey) betrayed her.”
For Gregg Bonnie, the roots of that betrayal began when Sarah Bonnie received a call from her cousin.
Dorsey - who had a history of crack cocaine and alcohol addiction - needed money to pay for a prior cocaine purchase. He first called other family members, including Sarah's sister Traci (Sheley) Estes to ask for the cash. When they turned him down, he then turned to Sarah.
“She (Sarah) had called me, stating that she and Ben were going to Brian's apartment because his dealers were not letting him out until they got their money,” Estes said. “... I told her that I would go with them.”
Estes then proceeded to Dorsey's Jefferson City apartment where she met up with the Bonnies.
While there, the Bonnies paid the debt - dispatching the drug dealers - and brought Dorsey back to their home, offering to wash his laundry and give him a place to stay for the night.
It was there that Dorsey shot both victims in the head with a single-barrel breach loading 20-gauge shotgun. He then proceeded to steal electronics, CD's, jewelry and other belongings to pawn for drug money, leaving the bodies to be found by Sarah Bonnie's parents the next morning after they grew concerned from not being able to contact the couple by phone.
“When we got to the house Jade was drinking chocolate milk and eating chips in front of the television,” Sarah's mother Diana Mosier said. “I said ‘Jade, where's your momma?' and she said ‘NaNa, I tried to get her up all morning and she won't get up,'”
Mosier and her husband Mike searched the house and found them both dead, locked in their bedroom.
Forensic evidence showed both were killed by a shotgun taken by Dorsey from their home and also indicated that Sarah Bonnie was raped and that someone doused her body with bleach, presumably to rid it of DNA evidence and ruin sperm samples for testing.
“I utilized an alternative light source to enhance or look for trace evidence of anything not visible to the naked eye,” said Detective Jeff Nichols, a chief investigator with the Major Case Squad. “On the mid-section of the female victim I observed what appeared to be a pour pattern that I photographed at the scene and during the autopsy.”
Callaway County Sheriff's deputies, highway patrol, crime scene investigators and other sources recounted what they found at the crime scene, how they found Sarah Bonnie's 1997 Grand Prix abandoned near the Missouri River with many of their belongings inside and how they traced a cell phone Dorsey stole from them to a buyer in St. Louis. They also emphasized Dorsey's three drug convictions - the last less than two months before the murders, according to Callaway County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Sterner.
Throughout the trial Dorsey kept his head lowered, occasionally sobbing and wiping tears from his eyes. Defense attorneys tried to make the case that Dorsey committed the murders in a haze of drugs and turned himself in once he realized the magnitude of what he had done. They pointed out a history of depression and two suicide attempts in recent history, and his increasing dependence on cocaine. That led up to Dorsey being discharged from drug court - a program with intensive counseling for drug abuse - in July 2005 caused by drug and alcohol relapses and increasingly severe bouts with mental health issues. He was then placed on supervised probation only months before the murders.
“One of the things the drug court people specified was that he had really serious mental health issues that led to suicide attempts,” defense attorney Christopher Shlesser said.
But those reasons didn't placate the families whose lives have been devastated by their loss.
“Every pleasant memory I have has (Ben) in it,” Ben's brother Jake Bonnie said. “He's someone I always wanted to be like.
“It's affected me deeply,” he continued as he sobbed. “If Ben were here, I'd be a better father to my children, a better husband, a better son to my parents. He was my best friend.”
Dorsey - Sarah's cousin - pleaded guilty in March to both murders that occurred Dec. 23, 2006, at the Bonnie home in rural New Bloomfield while their child, 4-year-old Jade, was somewhere in the house. This jury will now determine whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison.
The prosecution called 31 witnesses to the stand Wednesday with little rebuttal from the defense on the facts of the case.
“What hurts me most - the deepest thing here - is the betrayal,” Benjamin's father Gregg Bonnie said. “They were betrayed when they lent a helping hand.
Ben did it because he loved his wife, she helped because she loved her cousin and (Dorsey) betrayed her.”
For Gregg Bonnie, the roots of that betrayal began when Sarah Bonnie received a call from her cousin.
Dorsey - who had a history of crack cocaine and alcohol addiction - needed money to pay for a prior cocaine purchase. He first called other family members, including Sarah's sister Traci (Sheley) Estes to ask for the cash. When they turned him down, he then turned to Sarah.
“She (Sarah) had called me, stating that she and Ben were going to Brian's apartment because his dealers were not letting him out until they got their money,” Estes said. “... I told her that I would go with them.”
Estes then proceeded to Dorsey's Jefferson City apartment where she met up with the Bonnies.
While there, the Bonnies paid the debt - dispatching the drug dealers - and brought Dorsey back to their home, offering to wash his laundry and give him a place to stay for the night.
It was there that Dorsey shot both victims in the head with a single-barrel breach loading 20-gauge shotgun. He then proceeded to steal electronics, CD's, jewelry and other belongings to pawn for drug money, leaving the bodies to be found by Sarah Bonnie's parents the next morning after they grew concerned from not being able to contact the couple by phone.
“When we got to the house Jade was drinking chocolate milk and eating chips in front of the television,” Sarah's mother Diana Mosier said. “I said ‘Jade, where's your momma?' and she said ‘NaNa, I tried to get her up all morning and she won't get up,'”
Mosier and her husband Mike searched the house and found them both dead, locked in their bedroom.
Forensic evidence showed both were killed by a shotgun taken by Dorsey from their home and also indicated that Sarah Bonnie was raped and that someone doused her body with bleach, presumably to rid it of DNA evidence and ruin sperm samples for testing.
“I utilized an alternative light source to enhance or look for trace evidence of anything not visible to the naked eye,” said Detective Jeff Nichols, a chief investigator with the Major Case Squad. “On the mid-section of the female victim I observed what appeared to be a pour pattern that I photographed at the scene and during the autopsy.”
Callaway County Sheriff's deputies, highway patrol, crime scene investigators and other sources recounted what they found at the crime scene, how they found Sarah Bonnie's 1997 Grand Prix abandoned near the Missouri River with many of their belongings inside and how they traced a cell phone Dorsey stole from them to a buyer in St. Louis. They also emphasized Dorsey's three drug convictions - the last less than two months before the murders, according to Callaway County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Sterner.
Throughout the trial Dorsey kept his head lowered, occasionally sobbing and wiping tears from his eyes. Defense attorneys tried to make the case that Dorsey committed the murders in a haze of drugs and turned himself in once he realized the magnitude of what he had done. They pointed out a history of depression and two suicide attempts in recent history, and his increasing dependence on cocaine. That led up to Dorsey being discharged from drug court - a program with intensive counseling for drug abuse - in July 2005 caused by drug and alcohol relapses and increasingly severe bouts with mental health issues. He was then placed on supervised probation only months before the murders.
“One of the things the drug court people specified was that he had really serious mental health issues that led to suicide attempts,” defense attorney Christopher Shlesser said.
But those reasons didn't placate the families whose lives have been devastated by their loss.
“Every pleasant memory I have has (Ben) in it,” Ben's brother Jake Bonnie said. “He's someone I always wanted to be like.
“It's affected me deeply,” he continued as he sobbed. “If Ben were here, I'd be a better father to my children, a better husband, a better son to my parents. He was my best friend.”
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Ja50np wrote on Sep 4, 2008 3:17 AM:
In this case, which is obviously more extreme than most, this man will have to live with his guilty conscience until death. An execution would probably be doing him a favor and put him out of his misery. "