Husband sentenced in mercy killing

Deltona Manslaughter Wanted to end his wife's suffering.

by Associated Press

Published: Sat, January 24, 2009 - 12:14 pm CST Last Updated: Sun, January 25, 2009 - 5:10 pm CST

DELAND, Fla. (AP) - A Deltona man who pleaded guilty to
manslaughter after killing his wife will not go to prison.
A judge sentenced 82-year-old Robert Benjo on Friday to two
years of house arrest, followed by 13 years probation to fulfill a
15-year suspended prison. A defense attorney had argued that Benjo
had only killed his sick, elderly wife to end her suffering.
Benjo fired a .22-caliber bullet into the head of his wife,
Peggy, on June 5, 2008. His attorney said the woman suffered from
cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Benjo pleaded guilty to manslaughter in September. He could have
faced a maximum of 30 years in prison.

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Violator Says:

Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 10:43 am

He will be on probation until he is 95! If he lives that long. I wonder if they will make him take monthly drug test like the require some others.

SouthernMama82 Says:

Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 4:26 am

I would have told her to kill herself. If she wanted to die bad enough she could have done it herself. What he did was murder plain & simple!

KSJD Says:

Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 6:25 pm

i think he could have went about a better way but i do agree with helping her. i mean she had no life left. if one was not enough she had to horrible diseases. i feel for him that he had to do it. i think the sentence if the right one.

rosepetal Says:

Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:18 pm

sounds more like he killed her to end his suffering. this was no mercy killing. he should have served hard time.

atlangel114 Says:

Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 1:41 pm

She was demented and therefore not capable of making decisions on her own. I have heard of passive euthanasia but damn… shooting her? Not cool. Not cool. I realize that she was probably suffering but what a horrible way to make her go out.

DEW26M Says:

Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 1:10 pm

I’m not sure if I buy this one or not. I think I would have had to had video proof of it in order to hear her say in her own words she wanted to die(if I were a juror or judge). I’ve read a few articles on this case, and it seemed sincere. However that’s such a brutal way to execute the death. It would be really hard for me to put a bullet into the head of someone I loved. If she didn’t want it, this man got away with murder and is laughing now.