Hamilton, OH: Killer scheduled to be executed Oct. 6

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
Updated 8:07 AM Tuesday, September 21, 2010
HAMILTON — The last thing Judy Gabbard said to her sister on Jan. 29, 1993, is “Kat, I promise I will be OK.”
Kathy Johnson, known as Kat to her eight siblings, received the call as a wish on her 36th birthday. Two days later, her sister was found dead in the Great Miami River after she was beaten with a tire iron by estranged boyfriend Michael Benge.
“I am grateful he didn’t kill her on my birthday, it is hard enough to live with. I don’t think I could bear every year if the anniversary of her death was also my birthday,” said the 53-year-old Johnson, while sitting on the couch of her Milford Twp. home. The living room is decorated with framed family photos. Included is a smiling portrait of Gabbard, just a month before she was killed.
“We found that photo in her camera — after. It was the last one taken of her on Dec. 31. It is the most precious picture in the world to me,” Johnson said.
After 17 years behind bars, 49-year-old Benge is scheduled to be executed Oct. 6. His death sentence was handed down in June 1993 by a jury in Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage’s courtroom.
Presenting the state’s case was county Prosecutor Robin Piper, then an assistant. Earlier this month, Piper, Gabbard and others, along with members of Benge’s family, traveled to Columbus to speak before the Ohio Parole Board, which would make a clemency recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland. On Sept. 15, that board recommended Strickland not spare Benge’s life.
During the birthday phone call in the winter of 1993, Johnson said she begged her sister not to let Benge back into her C Street home.
Gabbard, a divorced mother of two children, met Benge at a bar where she had accompanied a younger sister. Johnson said she believed Benge was abusive to her sister, more than she let on.
“It think she kept it a secret,” Johnson said.
Benge, who had a drug addiction, threatened to kill Gabbard and her children. He also stole from her, according to Gabbard. Eventually, Gabbard had enough and kicked Benge out of her house.
“But he told her he had no place to go until he got his tax check,” said Johnson, noting her sister, who aspired to be a nurse and worked at Mercy North Hospital, believed in the good in people.
“She was always happy,” Johnson said. “And so kindhearted.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.