The News-Press: Local & State - Wal-Mart stop leads to arrest 


        Local & State - June 28, 2004 


Saved from : http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/040526body.html




            Wal-Mart stop leads to arrest
            Man, 26, held on murder charge
            By DENES HUSTY III, dhusty@news-press.com
             Published by news-press.com on June 26, 2004

            Employees at an East Naples Wal-Mart were suspicious when a man 
            covered in blood bought clothes and garbage bags at 4 a.m. Friday. 
            So they called police.. 
            The tip helped sheriff’s deputies track down Sheddrick Deon Bentley, 
            26, and charge him with second-degree murder. 
            He is accused of killing 18-year-old Cory Brightman, whose body was 
            found in a garbage bin behind Gulf Gate Plaza. 
            Bentley is being held in the Collier County Jail without bail. 
            According to sheriff’s investigator Thomas Whittaker’s report: 
            Wal-Mart employees became curious when Bentley walked into the store 
            at 3451 Tamiami Trail E., a few blocks from the sheriff’s office, 
            just before 4 a.m. 
            Employees told deputies that the man tried to wash up in the 
            restroom before buying clothes, bandages and trash bags with a $100 
            bill that also appeared to be blood-stained. 
            Employees took down the tag number of the pickup the man drove. 
            Deputies called the truck’s owner, Brightman’s father, who said the 
            man described wasn’t his son. 
            An hour later, a deputy saw a man on the Gordon River Bridge in 
            Naples. The man had scrapes on his hands and blood on his skin. He 
            bolted and ran. 
            At 6:50 a.m., officers found Bentley again. 
            Bentley told officers that he and Brightman fought near the trash 
            bin and Brightman attacked him with a knife and he fought back. 
            However, the wounds on Bentley’s hands were inconsistent with 
            defensive injuries, authorities said. 
            Investigators went to the garbage bin and found a body. The victim — 
            later identified as Brightman — had been stabbed several times.

      Copyright 2002, The News-Press.