LAZY ALABAMA BUREAUCRATS NOT INTERESTED IN IDENTIFYING A KILLER

What if the guilty party is still out there and ready to strike again?

Tracy Thomas doesn't sleep well at night. Since the murder of her sister, Cynthia Thomas in 2005, she has struggled with the healing process. Now the man suspected of killing Cynthia Thomas is dead and old wounds are splitting wide open. Lamar "Johnny" Benton was found dead in his Russell County Jail cell early Monday morning. Death came for the 18-year-old Seale, Ala., man when he fabricated a rope using a torn bed sheet and hanged himself in his solitary cell, Sheriff Tommy Boswell said. Thomas' sisters and mother said they gain little satisfaction from knowing Benton is gone, however. They fear, among other things, they'll never know whether this teenager is really the one who did it.

Upon hearing of Benton's death, Russell County Chief Deputy District Attorney Buster Landreau said he contacted the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery and asked them to cease forensic testing in this case. "We asked them to stop as of the moment and let us see what has been completed," Landreau said. He said it was doubtful the district attorney's office will request the forensics lab to continue with the analysis, but that depends upon how far along they are. Asked if any of the testing has been completed, Landreau said he believed the forensic biology portion may be finished, but he's not sure what else has been done. "The state lab is months and months behind," Landreau said. "Do we want them to consume resources and time doing work on a case where the defendant is deceased or do we want them to focus on cases that will go to trial?"

Benton's attorney, Jeremy Armstrong, said the correct answer would be to continue. It is the district attorney's responsibility to seek the truth and seek justice, Armstrong said. By not fulfilling that responsibility in this case they are convicting Benton without him ever going to trial, he said. In a letter sent Tuesday to the Russell County District Attorney's Office, Armstrong wrote: "I respectfully request that DNA testing and fingerprint analysis proceed and that we be provided with all reports regarding the conclusions of these tests." "I don't think we should convict Mr. Benton just because he's dead," Armstrong said.

Landreau doesn't see eye-to-eye with the defense attorney, however, pointing out that Benton reportedly confessed to the murder. [There have been umpteen false confessions] "I don't view it that there's any miscarriage of justice," Landreau said.

It was a flat tire that ultimately led to Cynthia Thomas' death the morning of Feb. 17, 2005. The 39-year-old mother of three was traveling on Alabama 169 around 8 a.m. when a tire on her white Nissan Maxima went flat near Luton Lane. Soon, help arrived in the form of an off-duty sheriff's deputy and his wife. The couple offered Thomas the use of their cell phone, a commodity she was without at the time. Thomas called her family, at which point the officer and his wife drove away.

Two more people allegedly stopped that morning, but Thomas refused assistance, saying help was on the way. She was waiting alone for a family member to arrive when Benton stopped, authorities said. Thomas was found lying in the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church cemetery on Sandfort Road in Seale, Ala., around 3 p.m. A visitor to the cemetery discovered the body. She had been raped and stabbed. Benton was arrested Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005. Russell County Jail records listed his charge as murder with a knife.

As it stands, the district attorney's office will wait for the lab to send the results they do have and then make a decision where to go from there. Asked how long it will take to receive the results, Landreau said he didn't know.

Cynthia Thomas' sisters, Sheila Lane and Tracy Thomas, and her mother, who asked not to be identified by name, said they support Armstrong's request. "I prefer for them to continue on for some closure," Lane said. "Right now, only she has the answers and she's not here. Only they know what happened that day." Both families are entitled to have closure to this case, Armstrong said. By asking to allow forensic testing to continue, Armstrong contends his client will be absolved of wrongdoing, an assertion he defends based on conversations he had with his client, as well as his own investigation into the murder, he said. "At the very least, he was not the only one there that day," Armstrong said. "I'm asking the district attorney's office to allow these tests to continue. If they don't match my client, we have a killer still on the loose."

For Tracy Thomas, the news of Benton's death was hard to swallow. "This family was not prepared for anything like this," she said in a phone interview. Cynthia Thomas' mother said Benton's death is tragic. "My daughter's gone and she's never coming back," she said. "Now, another life has been taken. I really wanted to look him in his eyes and tell him I forgive him." Closure would be a sweet thing for the Thomas family to have, although all three women said they have been forever changed by Cynthia's death. "I will never be the same," Cynthia's mother said. "Now, all I want is for people to let her rest in peace."

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