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• Jury Finds Bentley Guilty in Murder, Kidnapping of Jetseta Gage

January 31, 2006 (Davenport, IA) – (AP) - Roger Bentley was found guilty today of kidnapping and killing Jetseta Gage.

The seven woman, five man jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before finding Bentley guilty of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder. He faces mandatory life prison terms on both counts.

Prosecutor J. Patrick White argued during the two-day trial that overwhelming evidence - DNA, blood samples, witness statements - linked Bentley to the gruesome, high-profile crime.

White said Bentley abducted Gage from her Cedar Rapids home March 24 and drove the girl to a deserted mobile home outside of Iowa City, where Gage was sexually assaulted and suffocated with a plastic bag tied over her head.

Police arrested Bentley at the trailer the following day and discovered Gage's battered body inside a bathroom cabinet.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 17.

In closing arguments, White said physical evidence and witness statements should lead the jury to only one conclusion.

"An avalanche of evidence has buried Roger Bentley ... that he kidnapped and murdered Jetseta Gage," White said.

The defense, which rested its case without calling a single witness, urged jurors to look critically at the matching blood and semen samples and scrutinize loopholes in the prosecution case.

Defense attorney Peter Persaud said White failed to explain how Gage was taken from her home, pointed out the absence of evidence showing Gage traveled in Bentley's truck and highlighted inconsistencies in the crime timeline.

Persaud suggested another person was involved in the crime, pointing to hairs taken from Gage's body that did not match Bentley and two cigarette butts found at the scene that were not linked to Bentley.

The defense also tied in a book, "The Necromantic Ritual Book," that was seized from Bentley's residence that was entered into evidence last week. Necromancy is defined as the conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing or influencing the future.

Persaud suggested necromancy has loose ties to necrophilia, and that Bentley's role was limited to performing necromantic rituals on the body after death.

"When you look at the evidence in its totality, it's clear there is another person involved," Persaud said.

The evidence phase of the trial ended Friday. The final witness, a state criminologist, testified that Bentley's DNA had been identified on at least three locations on Gage's body. Testimony also indicated that Gage's blood had tested positive in samples taken from blood stains on Bentley's pants, underpants, shirt and fingernails.

A forensic pathologist also testified that Gage died of asphyxia and suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries across her body, a sign the girl struggled with her attacker before death. Gage also suffered severe injury from the sexual assault, according to an autopsy.

By Todd Dvorak, of The Associated Press