Victim Terry Nigale Benjamin
LOS ANGELES — Organizing one’s disarray took on new meaning when a jury sentenced Kenneth Mullen Watkins (29) to 16 years to life in state prison for fatally stabbing an acquaintance and stuffing him in a plastic storage box.
Deputy District Attorney Deann Rivard of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced yesterday that a jury found Watkins guilty on August 8th of one count of second-degree murder with the special allegation that he used a knife.
Court testimony revealed that 52-year-old Terry Nigale Benjamin’s sister reported him missing on January 12, 2016. Days before, tenants at the apartment complex where the victim lived complained about a foul smell.
Eleven days later, the apartment’s building owner entered the victim’s apartment and discovered Benjamin’s body stuffed into a 45-gallon plastic storage container, the prosecutor added.
According to evidence presented at trial, Watkins stabbed the victim multiple times on January 4, 2016. The defendant then cleaned up the crime scene, bagged the evidence and piled the bags of evidence on top of the victim’s body after stuffing him into the container.
The case is now closed.
