ROGER BENTLEY | Kidnap, Rape And Murder Of 10yo Jetseta Gage | Sentenced To Two Consecutive Mandatory Sentences Of LWOP | Many Iowans Call For Restoration Of The Death Penalty | ALS

Roger Bentley. ALS. Commercial #10 (4.125” x 9.5”) envelope. Pmk: May 8, 2007. SEALED. Content unknown. Pristine.

Prosecutors alleged that Roger Bentley (hereinafter referred to as “Roger”; b. June 13, 1967 | age 56) took Gage (“Jetseta”) from her home to a run-down trailer in rural Johnson County, Iowa, where he raped and killed her. An AMBER Alert was issued shortly after it was noticed that she was missing. The AMBER Alert program had errors that night. A proper description with name and picture did not appear until hours after she had vanished. Roger was arrested a day later. Investigators found her body inside a bathroom cabinet inside the trailer.

Roger's trial was moved to Scott County on the defense's change of venue motion because of extensive pre-trial publicity; local media dubbed the case “Justice for Jetseta”. During his trial, prosecutors linked DNA evidence found on Jetseta's body to Roger, while the defense (which did not call any witnesses) claimed there were no eyewitnesses to the crime or direct evidence. It took just over two hours for the jury to arrive at its guilty verdict.

Roger's brother, 34-year-old James Bentley, was indicted in November 2004 on felony sexual abuse charges after authorities alleged he sexually abused Jetseta between 2002 and 2004. The Bentley brothers were not strangers to the family. Jetseta's mother had dated both men and allowed the brothers contact with her children. James Bentley was found guilty of second-degree sexual abuse at the Clarke County courthouse in Osceola, Iowa, on August 1, 2008. On March 1, 2007, a federal judge in Cedar Rapids found James Bentley guilty of six counts of child pornography and sexual exploitation charges in a separate trial. Bentley was accused of taking explicit photos of Jetseta and another infant girl in late 2003 and transporting those photos with him to Arkansas shortly afterwards. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on June 12, 2007.

Many Iowans, including the Gage family, have called for a restoration of the death penalty, particularly for crimes in which children are raped and killed. Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965, and is one of 12 states that currently do not have a death penalty. A GOP-sponsored bill failed to pass in 2005, and future attempts to pass a death penalty for certain crimes never resulted in a bill being passed.

VIDEO: JETSETA GAGE (THE MONSTERS AND THE PREY) | https://youtu.be/-WQ-FnCaOM4

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