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August 09, 2006
Ben Fawley enters plea in Taylor Behl death
Richmonder Benjamin Fawley this afternoon acknowledged there was sufficient evidence to convict him of murder in the death of VCU freshman Taylor Behl.
Asked by Mathews County Circuit Judge William H. Shaw III if he was pleading of his own free will, Fawley softly replied yes.
When the judge asked Fawley if he was guilty, Fawley's attorney, Chris Collins, responded that Fawley was entering an Alford plea. While considered a guilty plea, it does not include an admission of culpability, but it is predicated on a defendant's belief that the evidence against him is strong enough to convict him.
Fawley sat at the defense table with his head bowed during his questioning by Shaw and during a reading of the evidence that Mathews Commonwealth's Attorney Jack Gill said would have been presented had the case gone to trial.
Portions of the hearing, which began at 4:30 p.m., were broadcast live on two Richmond television stations. The hearing is continuing past 5 p.m.
Behl, 17, of Fairfax County had been at VCU only a few days before she disappeared after leaving her dorm room the night of Sept. 5, 2005. Her remains were found a month later in a ravine along a dirt road near the public beach in Mathews, about 75 miles east of Richmond.
Fawley faced five to 40 years if convicted of second-degree murder at trial.
In a jailhouse statement to police shortly after the discovery of the body, Fawley admitted to being with Behl the night she died. He told investigators he restricted her breathing during a consensual sex act in her car, leading to her accidental death. He said he panicked and disposed of her body.
Prosecutors, police and Behl's family maintained that Fawley meant to harm Behl.
An autopsy of Behl's skeletal remains determined that she died from "homicidal violence" but could not specify what killed her. It stated that it was possible that the teen died from an "asphyxial mechanism of death."
Visit TimesDispatch.comlater this evening for updates, and see tomorrow's Times-Dispatch for a full story.
Posted by Nealus at August 9, 2006 05:45 PM
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