{"id":429079,"date":"2026-10-16T01:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429079\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T01:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:32:12","slug":"former-police-officer-sentenced-to-death-for-fort-pierce-bike-shop-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429079\/","title":{"rendered":"Former police officer sentenced to death for Fort Pierce bike shop murder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/news-team\/b01334e5-5687-482b-93de-c7a4b1ede900\" aria-label=\"Ari Hait profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792114332_558_b01334e5-5687-482b-93de-c7a4b1ede900_1657581227.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Ari Hait\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">Otto Lenke, a former Melbourne police officer and Indian River County firefighter, has been sentenced to death for the 2021 murder of Richard Benson, a bike shop owner in Fort Pierce.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Assistant State Attorney Brandon White, who prosecuted the case, called the sentence justice.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">&#8220;The jury got it right,&#8221; White said. &#8220;This was probably one of the most heinous crimes in the history of our circuit. It was all caught on camera. It was well planned out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors showed the jury security video from inside the bike shop.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">They said the video showed Lenke not just killing Benson but torturing him.   <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">&#8220;He tormented him and basically made Richard&#8217;s life a living hell, those last two minutes of his life by pouring that accelerant on him and lighting him on fire,&#8221; White said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">White stated that jealousy was the motive behind the murder, as Benson had started dating a woman Lenke previously dated. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">White said because he was a former police officer, Lenke thought he knew how he could get away with murder.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">&#8220;The defendant used his 20-plus years of experience in law enforcement to plan this attack, to carry out this attack,&#8221; White said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">Benson&#8217;s family, who appeared via Zoom from out of state, was not present in the courtroom as the judge sentenced Lenke to death.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">&#8220;I think this is something they wanted for Rich. This was justice,&#8221; White said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"11\">The case is not yet concluded, as Florida law requires the state Supreme Court to review all death sentences. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">Lenke is also expected to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"13\">Stay up-to-date: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"14\">Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"15\">Follow us on social: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPBF25News\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wpbf25news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WPBF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 Otto Lenke, a former Melbourne police officer and Indian River County firefighter, has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[111932,15288,168607,1183,5507,11851,168606,1598,1210,1933,171,173,172,111931,168608,221,7982,189],"class_list":["post-429079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-otto-lenke","tag-attack","tag-bike-shop-owner","tag-case","tag-death","tag-experience","tag-former-police-officer","tag-law-enforcement","tag-life","tag-murder","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-richard-benson","tag-sentence-justice","tag-weather","tag-white","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}