Hochul’s New York: Man Accused of Killing Wife Hours After Freed Without Bail for Allegedly Beating Her

A western New York man, accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife with a shotgun in front of her three children, was freed without bail the day before after he allegedly beat her.

Ex-convict Adam Bennefield, 45, was charged with second-degree murder for the death of Keaira Bennefield, 30, along with aggravated criminal contempt and three counts of child endangerment. The day before Keaira’s death on October 5, Benefield appeared in Cheektowaga Town Court on a misdemeanor charge for allegedly assaulting her inside her home.

Cheektowaga police responded to the domestic violence call on the morning of September 28 and obtained an arrest warrant for a harassment charge for Bennefield, the Buffalo News reported. Police say that Keaira did not need to be hospitalized, and they told her to call them if he returned home.

Later that evening, Keaira uploaded an almost eight-minute video of the assault onto Facebook, writing, “This is what this man dose [sic] to me but i’m always treated like i’m the abuser!” The video appears to show Keaira being tackled and punched multiple times by Bennefield.

The video eventually led to Bennefield being arraigned in court on October 4 on misdemeanor charges for allegedly assaulting his estranged wife.

However, Bennefield was released the same day because New York law prevented the judge from setting bail due to the low-level misdemeanor charges.

The next morning, Keaira was so scared for her safety that she wore a bulletproof vest while driving her children to school. Tragically, while driving, Bennefield allegedly crashed his vehicle into her SUV, pulled out a shotgun, and fatally shot her before fleeing. The mother’s nine-year-old and five-year-old daughters were in the backseat, along with the couple’s six-month-old son.

Following a week-long manhunt, Bennefield was caught by police in Buffalo on October 12 and has since been held without bail. He was charged in court on October 21 and appeared in court again Wednesday.

Bennefield was previously convicted in 2000 for kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and another woman at gunpoint and escaping from the Erie County Facility. He was paroled from state prison in 2015, the Buffalo News noted.

According to the New York Post, because of the radical bail reform laws passed by New York’s Democrat-controlled legislature, a judge cannot weigh dangerousness when considering bail for a suspect, which includes Bennefield’s 2000 conviction.

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn (D) initially said there was no evidence to charge Bennefield with anything more than a misdemeanor for his alleged September attack on Keaira.

“The charges were correctly charged. The judge had no choice but to release this person,” he stated at the time via the Post.

After the 45-year-old’s court arraignment on October 21, Flynn had a shift in tone and called for the bail law to be amended.

“I was an advocate of bail reform initially. I still am an advocate for the majority parts of the bail reform law. I believe the law went too far,” the D.A. said. “I believe that provisions need to be made to the law.”

Following Keaira’s death, Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, demanded an end to cashless bail and called out his opponent Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), for being passive in changing the state’s bail law.

“On Tuesday, Adam Bennefield attacked his wife, was arrested, charged with many crimes, & released on cashless bail. The next day, he killed her in front of their 3 kids.” Zeldin stated on Twitter.

“[Kathy Hochul] won’t give judges discretion to weigh dangerousness so now these 3 kids no longer have their mom,” he added.

Hochul has championed New York’s unpopular No Bail law, stating in a March op-ed that “the reforms were successful.”

However, as Breitbart News has reported, data from January 2020 to January 2021 showed that more than four-in-ten suspects who were freed from jail under the No Bail law were later rearrested for other crimes.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.