LAGUNA NIGUEL : Flooring Installer Is Charged With Murdering Woman

Eric Wayne Bennett, 23, of Fallbrook was charged Thursday with murder with special circumstances of burglary and sodomy in the death of a Laguna Hills woman. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

At a hearing in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel, Bennett’s arraignment was postponed until Dec. 8 at his attorney’s request.

“This is a case the district attorney can seek the death penalty on, and we want to make sure everything is handled properly,” Deputy Public Defender James Egar said.

Bennett, the father of two sons, ages 4 and 9 months, is charged with sodomizing and bludgeoning 50-year-old Marie Evans Powell, whose body was found in her townhouse on Oct. 14.

Bennett had installed flooring at Powell’s house.

Egar said that, among other things, he wants to know the nature of the scientific evidence police used as the basis for arresting Bennett on Monday at his parents’ home in Fallbrook.

Bennett’s relatives have said that homicide investigators took a sample of Bennett’s fingerprints and a sample of his blood, searched the couple’s former Costa Mesa home and impounded the Toyota pickup truck that he used for work.

He is being held without bail in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana.