Benassi gets eight years in DOC in plea agreement

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

A 22-year-old Fillmore man, who celebrated three birthdays behind bars and completed a Clay County child-molesting sentence while a similar case against him percolated in the Putnam County court system, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in a 2012 case.

Putnam Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges has sentenced Zachary L. Benassi to those eight years in the Department of Correction, six years fully executed, and the balance of time suspended after a plea agreement was reached between the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office and court-appointed attorney Jeffrey Boggess.

In a plea bargain agreement filed with the court May 8, Benassi pled guilty to child molesting, a Class B felony, in an April 2012 Putnam County case. In return, a Class D felony, auto theft, and a Class A misdemeanor, resisting law enforcement, against Benassi were dismissed and two other misdemeanors closed out for time served.

In the original case it was reported that at least twice between April 20 and 22, 2012, Benassi had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old Bainbridge area girl at his home and at the Heritage Lake campground.

Benassi, 19 at the time, was initially charged June 25, 2012 in the Putnam County case, just seven days after being arrested in Greencastle for a Clay County incident that occurred April 23, 2012 at Forest Park in Brazil.

In November 2012, Benassi pled guilty to having sexual relations with a 13-year-old female acquaintance from Brazil in the Clay County case. He was sentenced to four years executed in the DOC and one-year probation for pleading guilty to the lesser-included offense of child molesting as a Class C felony.

Meanwhile, Benassi's Putnam County case was set for a change-of-plea hearing several times and endured multiple continuances at the requests of the defense. A bench trial even was scheduled and scuttled.

That all boiled over to an April 10 hearing after Boggess became the new court-appointed attorney for Benassi, replacing Scott Adams in February.

It was argued that the state had a year to charge Benassi in the Putnam County case but had not. A motion to dismiss was even filed by the defense in August 2013.

The defense also argued that the state took no action for 10 months after that, adding that such inaction was "beyond allowable time."

However, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Ensley noted that Putnam County charges had been filed but Benassi was not arrested because he was being held in the Clay County Jail at the time.

Regardless, Boggess said he did not understand why Benassi was not brought to Putnam County on a DOC commitment in a timely fashion.

The system, he said, "can park people like this," which ultimately can be a detriment to the evidence being preserved and the defendant getting a fair trial, he added.

The defense also presented case law at the April 10 hearing, hoping to get proceedings started and Benassi discharged. Judge Bridges took that under advisement. He vacated the latest change-of-plea hearing and set a bond reduction hearing for May 8.

In the interim, however, a plea agreement was reached and introduced May 8.Thge judge accepted the agreement and ordered the Benassi sentencing.