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2nd Trial In Death Of Optician Starts Today

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By TODD LESKANIC, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 11, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - The second of two men charged in the slaying of John Benjamin heads to trial this morning in Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Court.

Christopher Anthony Wright, 46, of Port Richey, is charged with first-degree murder.

He faces a life sentence if the jury finds him guilty as charged.

A worker found Benjamin's charred remains inside the burned-out shell of an Isuzu SUV near a Hays Road construction site on Sept. 25, 2005.

Benjamin, 37, was an optician and father of two who had fallen on hard times.

Wright and his co-defendant, Daniel Lee Parbel, 37, were arrested in Benjamin's slaying two months later.

Parbel went to trial last month and was found guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in either case.

Jurors in Wright's case are likely to hear much of the same testimony Assistant State Attorney Michael Halkitis presented in Parbel's trial.

Evidence in Parbel's case showed Benjamin was killed because he owed $300 to Sherry Harris, his drug supplier. He was kidnapped from a house on Sept. 24, 2005, threatened and later taken to the site off Hays Road.

There, he was beaten, strangled, cut and left for dead. His attackers returned hours later to set fire to the scene.

Benjamin's body was so badly burned that it took investigators weeks to identify him.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at tleskanic@tampatrib.com or (727) 815-1084

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