The Associated Press
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A jury convicted a man Wednesday of the 1986 killing of a mother of four, a crime for which another man served 20 years in prison before being exonerated by new DNA tests.
The New Haven Superior Court jury found 47-year-old Kevin Benefield guilty of murder and felony murder during its second day of deliberations. Both charges carry a penalty of 25 to 60 years in prison. Sentencing is set for March 23.
Jurors found that he killed 30-year-old Barbara Pelkey, whose nude body was found at a manufacturing company where she worked in her hometown of Wallingford. Authorities said Pelkey was raped.
Another man, Kenneth Ireland, was convicted of killing Pelkey and served 20 years in prison before being released in August 2009 based on new DNA testing that showed he could not have committed the crime. Ireland is seeking $8 million from the state under Connecticut’s wrongful incarceration law.
Benefield worked at a catering and car business in the same Wallingford building where Pelkey worked, while Ireland worked at a local sandwich shop. Investigators looking into Pelkey’s death took a sample of Benefield’s saliva in 1986 and ended up submitting it to the state police crime lab in 2009 because of new DNA technology that had been developed. Testing linked Benefield’s saliva sample to the killing, police said.