Photo by: Jim Tatum/Journal Scene

Randal William Benton enters the courtroom during his trial Wednesday morning. Benton is on trial for the murder of his wife, Treva Dawn Benton, who was shot multiple times in the parking lot of a Summerville restaurant the night of Oct. 30, 2010.

As the trial of Randal William Benton continues, a picture of almost surreal emotional volatility punctuated with a moment of extreme violence emerges.

Benton, 48, of Summerville, is on trial for murder, accused of shooting his estranged wife, Treva Dawn Benton multiple times as they argued in a restaurant parking lot in Summerville in October 2010.

A neighbor, Scott Herbert, told the court that Benton at some point during the evening of Oct. 30 showed up at the apartment complex looking for Treva Benton and that he seemed angry.

Treva Benton’s son, Michael Palmer, however, would encounter Randal Benton more than once that day – Benton actually helped Palmer and others move Treva Benton’s possessions from her former apartment to a storage facility. Benton did not seem angry, nor did Palmer ever see a weapon on Benton or in his truck, Palmer said.

Palmer would encounter Benton later that evening around 10:30 p.m. in the apartment. He said Benton appeared at the kitchen door asking for Treva Benton. Palmer said the man smelled of alcohol but did not appear intoxicated and described Benton’s attitude as more nonchalant rather than angry.

Palmer told the court that Randal Benton told him that his truck broke down at a nearby bar and he had simply come by to ask Treva for a ride home. Treva Benton would arrive at the apartment shortly thereafter, Palmer said. She did agree to give Benton a ride home, but told her son – the last words she would speak to him – that she had her cell phone, the ringer was on, and if Palmer did not hear from her or she was not back in 20 minutes, he should call her. If she did not answer, he should call the police.

Palmer noted that his mother and Benton had been estranged for some six months and that she had been seeing someone for a little more than a month.

Palmer said he and his girlfriend, who was at the apartment that night, argued after his mother and Benton left the residence. He realized a little later that twenty minutes had passed and he had not heard from his mother. He called her number; no answer. He called a second time, again receiving no answer.

“I felt something wasn’t right,” Palmer said.

Palmer said he grabbed a baseball bat, and proceeded to walk to the bar where Benton said his truck was to verify that it was there.

But to get to the bar, he would have to walk past Perkins Restaurant. The first thing he said he noticed was police and emergency vehicles everywhere. Then an officer stopped him – because he was carrying a weapon. He told the officer what had transpired at the apartment and together they rode in a patrol car to the bar; they did not see Benton’s truck there, Palmer said.

Palmer would give the officer Benton’s description; shortly thereafter he was given the grim news that his mother was dead and Benton was a person of interest in the case.

Witnesses that evening would report to police investigators that a man and a woman pulled into the parking lot of the Trolley Road Perkins Restaurant in a dark colored Chevrolet Trailblazer about 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30. Witnesses would report that the man and woman were arguing outside the vehicle when the man pulled out a gun and shot the woman multiple times.

By the time law enforcement arrived on the scene, the suspect was gone, leaving the victim’s body and at least eight spent bullet shell casings, a baseball cap, and a pair of glasses lenses – one with a bullet hole through it – near her vehicle in the parking lot of Perkins Restaurant on Trolley Road.

Benton was arrested the next morning at a gas station in Lee County, Alabama located on a road named, ironically, Summerville Road.

Officers with the Phoenix City, Ala. Police Department and Lee County, Ala., Sheriff’s Office testified Wednesday that the suspect, Randal William Benton, was arrested without incident and that the vehicle and tag on the vehicle Benton was driving was listed on NCIC as being operated by a suspect in a homicide case in Summerville, S.C. Both officers also told the court they saw a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol on the floorboard of the defendant’s vehicle, as well as a long sheath knife in the passenger seat.

Investigators described Benton as very stressed, exhibiting what one investigator called a “20 mile stare.”

Investigators detained Benton, impounded his truck, and processed it for evidence, they said.

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