GUILTY DE - Nicole Bennett, 35, raped & murdered, Gumboro, 14 June 2012

Matthew Burton was extradited from Maryland to Delaware last month; 47 ABC is reporting that according to sources close to the investigation, Burton's trial will start in April 2016.

Burton faces 1st and 2nd degree rape, 1st and 2nd degree murder and kidnapping charges in connection with the slaying of then 35-year-old Nicole Bennett, in June 2012; her body was found in Worcester County in a ditch, a few miles from the Bay Shore Community Church in Gumboro where she worked and where Burton was hired for maintenance work.

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The church where Nicole Bennett provided day care to children, and where her accused killer, Matthew Burton, also worked, will pay $467,000 as part of a settlement in a lawsuit Bennett's family filed against the church, according to courthouse documents.

Kevin Bennett filed the wrongful death suit against the church; its pastor, Danny Tice; and Burton in April 2013. The suit claims the church allowed Burton to work as a custodian for two final weeks after its leaders learned he had been convicted of sex offense against a child in 2004.

The church failed to inform Nicole Bennett about Burton's past or why he was being let go, according to the suit. On Burton's last day of work, the lawsuit says, he kidnapped and killed her.

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A Sussex County Superior Court judge has given accused murderer Matthew Burton $1.5 million cash bail.

Burton is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree rape in connection with the 2012 death of Nicole Bennett. On April 25, Sussex County Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley gave Burton $500,000 cash for each count. A bail hearing was held April 22 in a case that extradited Burton from Maryland to Delaware. His trial is scheduled for October.

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32 year-old Matthew Burton faces felony rape and murder charges for the 2012 death of Nicole Bennett of Millsboro, Delaware.

It's been nearly four and a half years since Nicole's murder; however, there is still 6 months before Burton faces a Sussex County jury in May 2017.

"It is one for the books on this," admits John Brady, licensed Delaware attorney, "but the worst part is how it's affecting the family. It's really tough to explain to the family why it's taken over 4 years to get to the point where we're close to trial but we don't have a date yet. I can see how they're frustrated."

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A Delaware Superior Court judge has ruled that DNA evidence linking accused murderer Matthew Burton to the 2012 killing of Nicole Bennett may be presented at trial.

Burton’s attorneys, Daniel Strumpf and Gary Traynor, filed 10 separate motions challenging details of search warrants police obtained for Burton’s DNA and search his truck and his home.

Strumpf argued that the warrant seeking Burton’s DNA failed to present enough facts to show that police were entitled to collect it. Judge E. Scott Bradley disagreed, saying the evidence available makes clear that there was a reasonable belief that Burton’s DNA would be found on Bennett’s body.

Burton’s attorneys made 10 motions to suppress evidence in the case, and were successful in preventing evidence found in Burton’s truck and his past history as a sex offender from being introduced. Burton is scheduled to go to trial in May.

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Graygirl said:

There is a change of plea hearing in this case today at 9am.

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Bravo said:

:welcome:

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Five years after he raped and killed Nicole Bennett before dumping her body off a dirt road near the Maryland-Delaware border, Matthew Burton took only five seconds to put his case to rest.

“Did you rape and murder Nicole Bennett,” asked Delaware Superior Court Judge E. Scott Bradley.

“Yes,” Burton answered.

Burton, 33, pleaded guilty April 5 to second-degree murder and second-degree rape in the slaying of Bennett in 2012. Upon the recommendation of state prosecutors, Burton was sentenced to 15 years for the murder and 15 years for rape for a total of 30 years behind bars with credit for time served. Following his sentence, Burton will have 20 years combined of probation and will have to register as a sex offender.

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Bennett’s family, represented by her husband, Kevin, and his parents Bob and Mary, were bitterly disappointed by the plea and Burton’s sentence.

“I just don’t think this is justice,” Bob Bennett said. “He’s shown no signs of remorse. We’re not satisfied, but it’s out of our hands. We understand it’s not our call.”

Speaking outside Sussex County courthouse, Kevin Bennett said while it was difficult for him to be in the same room with Burton, he did not think Burton would admit to his crimes. It is nice a lengthy trial was avoided, he said – but he did not think Burton’s sentence was long enough.

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Kevin and the rest of his family are still learning and coping, not only with Nicole's horrific murder, but with a criminal justice system that they say let them down.

"The punishment definitely didn't fit the crime," Kevin said. "[We're] very disappointed."

"When they called us to let us know the day before it happened, I told them, my exact words were, 'This is unacceptable,'" Kevin said. "It was pretty much out of our hands though he basically was calling to tell us, it's gonna happen tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. The plea will happen and we really didn't have a say in it."

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Commenting more on why the plea deal was reached, the Attorney General's Office said, "A group of the state's most senior prosecutors carefully reviewed all the evidence in this case and determined that, if the case went to trial, there was a very good chance that Matthew Burton would be acquitted by a jury and walk out of court a free man."

For now, there's hope that federal prosecutors will get involved and re-try the case because it crossed state lines.

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Nicole's father-in-law, Bob Bennett, admits they are still infuriated with the outcome of this case, "I think, like the rest of the family, that I put my faith in God and not in the system. Because the system has let us down."

"Even a thief sometimes gets 20 to 25 years," exclaimed Bob Bennett. "And here is a sex offender previously, who has done the same to my daughter-in-law, taking her away from three kids. Unheard of. And this is called justice?"

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The Bennett's aren't contradicting the fact that the state prosecutor, David Hume, informed them about changes in the case and hearings, but Kevin tells 47 ABC that they do feel more could have been done, "Basically, I just told David, 'this is unacceptable.'"

We spoke to Nicole's mother, Margaret Reiser, over the phone. She and Nicole's father, Steve Reiser, live in Nebraska. And she has similar concerns, especially about how she was informed that a plea deal was reached.

She feels she was not given enough time to digest this information, let alone schedule a flight to be in Georgetown for the change of plea hearing in Sussex County Court.

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Why was the formal plea and sentencing so rushed?

It is regrettable the time frame did not allow the family to be present for sentencing, but the timing was part of guaranteeing that the defendant would plead guilty and thus be held accountable for what he did to Nicole Bennett and serve a substantial sentence behind bars, rather than go free following a trial with significant evidentiary issues.

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Will the Attorney General's Office agree that the punishment does not fit the crime?

Decades of incarceration as opposed to the real possibility of acquittal at trial, we believe, is an appropriate outcome. One cannot assess the resolution of the case without considering what would have happened at trial given the evidentiary issues.

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