by professorpan » Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:30 pm
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=99449&cat_id=123">www.kcrg.com/article.aspx...cat_id=123</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Evidence Suggests Bentley Dabbled in Occult<br>Friday, February 03, 2006, 10:53:11 AM<br><br>By Josh Hinkle <br>KCRG-TV9 News<br><br> Video <br>(Cedar Rapids - KCRG) -- There are strange questions about the man found guilty in the murder of Jeseta Gage. But evidence still lingers concerning Roger Bentley, suggesting ties to the occult. KCRG-TV9 News has proof that those ties go back more than a decade.<br><br>One piece of evidence that caught the victim's family off guard was the "Necromantic Ritual Book." Among other things, this book details the practice of using corpses to rause the spirit of the dead. The book was nothing new to Bentley; it's something he's had years to study.<br><br>A decade ago, Bentley was serving time as a sex offender at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. He and another inmate filed a law suit against prison officials, alleging a violation of First Amendment and religious freedoms. Court documents show Bentley and the other man called themselves Luciferians, members of the Church of Satan.<br><br>Among other things, prison officials denied the pair four religious books. But one book, "The Necromantic Ritual Book," would follow Bentley for more than 10 years.<br><br>On trial for the murder and kidnapping of 10-year-old Jetseta Gage, Bentley's attorney, Peter Persaud, presented the book as evidence. Police found a copy of the book at Bentley's home in Brandon. They also found Bentley and Jetseta's body inside an abandoned trailer in rural Johnson County.<br><br>Persaud told jurors his client was an occultist who happened to find the girl's body, and then perform a sex act on it. On the phone, Persaud said, his reason for mentioning the book was to suggest that Bentley was practicing necrophilia or sexual contact with a corpse.<br><br>The jury didn't buy it.<br><br>A decade ago, prison officials and a judge had reason to deny Bentley the book. The judge said its practices "have no place in a prison setting... they are also illegal."<br><br>In the chapter about necrophilia, the book's author, Leilah Wendell, even cautions its use, saying it's "at best illegal in many places," and "I emphasize the use of utmost caustion in this working."<br><br>Bentley's attorney also brought up the occult when questioning the woman who first showed Bentley the abandoned trailer. She told the court that Bentley said he sensed three bodies on the property. It was a strange, if not bizarre tactic, one that did not persuade jurors in the end.<br><br>The jury found Bentley guilty of both the kidnapping and murder of Jetseta Gage. <p></p><i></i>
