Carlton Bennett - Interview
By: Charlotte Williams
This writer first met Carlton Bennett in September 2005, at SCI Graterford Correctional Facility, the same facility that houses his cousin, Dwayne Bennett- Bob’s murderer, and Reid.
Wearing a prison-issued brown jumpsuit, the approximately five- foot, eight-inch man with a medium-frame sat next to me on a chair.
If you’ve read the story (ref. “The Case”), then you might also share in the belief that like Reid, Bennett was also wrongfully convicted of conspiracy to robbery and murder. He received the same sentence as Reid - life without the possibility of parole.
Bennett was wearing a smile when he approached this writer on September 5, 2005 inside a visiting area at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford. The walnut-brown complected man did not walk with a tough, “I’m mad at the world” swagger nor did he speak any slang during our conversation. Later, this writer found in his correspondence that he had received some level of formal education.
The well-spoken man, who is seated about an inch away from me, told me how he had never been in any serious trouble before his arrest and conviction.
Moreover, he says that neither he nor the other guys had ever been in the business of running around preying on innocent people. Several sources told this writer that Dwayne, Bob’s murderer, had a reputation for being quick tempered and uncontrollable, especially when he was high and that was why no one, including neighbors, ever hung out with him.
Like Reid, Bennett says that he did not accept a plea bargain because he was innocent. In addition, he also contends like Reid, that he has never been cited for any infractions in all of his fifteen and a half years of incarceration. However, Bennett says that because he was unable to make bail, that at the age of eighteen, he spent three months in the county jail for being a passenger in a stolen vehicle.
To emphasize a point, at times like a child seeking attention from his mother by lightly patting her knee when she is seated on a bed or chair, Bennett would lightly slap my knee once and then sweep his head upward to the right while simultaneously giving his mouth a right-sided twist to form an expression of disgust. Rolling his eyes skyward completed the quick four-step motion.
The eye-to-eye contact that Bennett and this writer had kept up until that point would be momentarily lost. One of the occasions that he performed the four-step motion was when he told this writer that: “To this day, I still don’t know why he did it.” The statement was made in reference to his cousin Dwayne having murdered Bob.
Bennett Clears the Air
Bennett wants to set the record straight on what he says is the only exception he had with the Giovanni Reid story (ref. “The Case”).
Although Bennett admits that Reid’s version was true when he said that he was with his cousin Dwayne when he walked up on him and the other fellas who were going to I-HOP, he does, however, want everyone to know that it did not start out that way.
To distinguish murderer Dwayne Bennett from his wrongfully convicted cousin Carlton, from this point on he will be referred to by his first name and his wrongfully convicted cousin Carlton Bennett will continue to be called Bennett.
The following is a paraphrase of what Bennett says brought him and Dwayne together on the morning of August 10, 1991.
Bennett explained that after receiving a phone call inviting him to go to I-Hop, that he left his home to walk in the direction of the home of play brothers and would-be government witnesses Tyrone Mackey and Richard King, who had invited him.
On his way over there, Bennett says that he encountered his cousin Dwayne a few blocks away from home, alone and milling about on a street corner while seemingly high off of some kind of illegal drug.
Bennett says Dwayne stopped him and asked, “Where are you going?” and that he answered that he was going to meet up with some guys to go to I-Hop. Dwayne then wanted to know who all was going, according to Bennett. Continuing, Bennett says that he began naming some names.
Bennett says that Dwayne then announced that he was going too; at which time he says he replied, “You can’t come; you weren’t invited.” Apparently Bennett’s response did not sit well with Dwayne because according to Bennett, Dwayne snapped back, “those niggaz know me,” and then proceeded to follow him.
In a reference to the other guys, Bennett told this writer, “I noticed the expressions on their faces when they saw Dwayne with me.” He then went on to describe their non-verbal communication, such as frowning and rolling their eyes. Neither Bennett nor Reid knew that the other had revealed to this writer during separate face-to-face interviews that the unforgettable morning of August 10, 1991 was the first time that all six of them had ever been together at any one time.
According to Reid Advocate Williams, Commonwealth witness Tyrone Mackey offered the same information to her unsolicited in a letter.
The Giovanni Reid Support Team’s decision to include Bennett was based on the fact that police reports and court testimony indicate that he had been walking side-by-side with Reid when Dwayne attacked Bob, which means that if Reid is innocent, then so too is Bennett.
And, let us not forget the very fact that Bennett was tried alongside Reid, which means that he was also convicted on the same suspect testimony.
Months after Williams introduced herself to the Bennett/Gaines family, this writer made contact with them and conducted a telephone interview to examine from their perspective the impact of their son’s false arrest, wrongful conviction and unjust incarceration on their family. Here, Bennett’s mother will be identified as “Bennett’s mother” and his father as Gaines.
In what appears on the surface to be a textbook example of a major depressive disorder, Bennett’s mother and father both agree that she became a recluse in her own house after their son’s conviction, and that she spent the next five consecutive years locked behind her bedroom door.
According to Bennett’s mother, although she no longer lives a reclusive life behind her bedroom door, she still however, does not enjoy some of the things that once gave her pleasure, such as going out with friends and attending family functions. The woman, who says that she was once an outgoing person now says that today, her outdoor activity might just be a trip to the store and back home.
Gaines let known that his wife did not attend the last portion of their son’s trial because it was too stressful for her. Moreover, he says that the guilty verdict “devastated her.”
In explaining the possible cause for the depth of Bennett’s mother’s undiagnosed mental disorder, Gaines offered his perspective on the mother/son relationship. First, he explained that Carlton was “his mother’s first-born child.” Next, he explored the mother/son bond and says that, “the bond that’s there is very strong and that when something gets in the way to interrupt or break it, that the result can be very devastating.” Reflecting, Gaines went on to explain that “many sons never realize how strong a bond we have with our mothers until after such an event occurs.” He continued: “Personally, I didn’t meet my father until I was twelve and then only saw him seven times after that.”
Gaines says that as a result, he vowed to himself that he would always be in his children’s lives. He shared that his mother was his mother and father figure.
According to Gaines, Bennett not only had a mother and father in the home, but in addition, he also had everything that he and his wife thought a child should have. He says, “we didn’t have a lot - we raised them (Bennett and his siblings), and anything that they needed, we tried to provide for them within reason.”
Bennett’s mother disclosed how she became angry with her son. The well-spoken woman opined, “I always told Carlton to be careful of the company that he keeps.” When this writer reminded her that she was talking about her own nephew who was also a member of her household at that time, she gave a crisp rejoinder: “It doesn’t matter, I don’t care who it is!”
She confessed how she had cut off all communication with her then seventeen-year-old nephew Dajuan a.k.a. Juannie, (first cousin to her son Carlton and also to Bob’s murderer Dwayne) because he had pre-arranged to meet with the police without first advising her, or her husband, for that matter, of his plans; thus stripping them of their right as parents to decide on the best way to protect his and their son, Carlton’s civil rights - before contacting police.
Bennett’s mother admitted that she felt betrayed by her nephew, Juannie, whom she says she helped to raise. She added that she had stopped speaking to him back in 1991, after his secret pact with the police had been exposed. According to her, she re-established contact with him back in 2005.
A middle-aged Jonathan Gaines (Bennett’s father) recalled feeling “devastated” after his son’s conviction. He says that he was “angry” with Carlton and his cousin Dajuan because he thought that they had been better taught how to avoid trouble.
Gaines says that he imparted the same wisdom to his two sons, daughter and nephew Dajuan that his own mother had taught him, which was: “You can be with whomever you want to be with, but the minute you see them getting ready to start trouble, if you don’t move your ass out of the way, I’m gonna whip it.”
Gaines says that although exaggerated, he knew that his mother meant for him to be careful of the company he kept, and to distance himself from anyone who was starting trouble. (Maybe that is what his son Bennett and nephew Dajuan, along with Reid and the two brothers were doing when they tried putting distance between themselves and an uninvited Dwayne, as police records indicate. Despite their efforts, a determined Dwaynecontinued to tag along, sharing the same public space.)
In a reference to the cousin relationship and the company you keep, like his wife, Gaines also says emphatically, “and that includes relatives.” Gaines went on to share how his mother’s wisdom has guided him throughout his adult life and says that even today, he is still careful of the company that he keeps.
During separate interviews, Bennett’s mother, and later the mother of his oldest child, Kemasiah offered unsolicited to this writer the same refrain that “no one, including neighbors” ever hung out with Dwayne.
Bennett’s mother recollected how students teased Dwayne unmercifully and ostracized him because he was a special education student. According to Bennett’s mother, the children’s cruelty left him a loner.
Kemasiah Gant (a.k.a. Kemah) Aftermath cont’d
The children who Carlton Bennett fathered before his unjust incarceration “are growing up without their father,” says Kemasiah Gant, the mother of Bennett’s oldest child. In an interview conducted in September 2005, Gant told this writer that their son “Lil” Carlton, who was sixteen years old at the time of this writing, had, had some recent brushes with the law.
Gant recounted how “Lil” Carlton resented his father and would not go with her to visit him at the prison because he grew up mistakenly believing that his father had murdered someone. Since sharing this web site with him, Gant now says that “he will accompany me occasionally.”