Fort Lewis soldier not involved in teen's death, friend says

FORT LEWIS, Pierce County — A 16-year-old girl who died of a prescription-drug overdose at Fort Lewis brought the pills onto the post and took them without the encouragement of her soldier boyfriend, another girl testified Thursday at an Army hearing.

Trashauna Yoacham offered a sharply different version of the February events that resulted in the Army charging Pvt. Timothy Bennitt with involuntary manslaughter for providing drugs that killed Leah King after she and Yoacham slipped into a barracks for enlisted soldiers.

When asked by a defense attorney whether Bennitt, King's boyfriend, had any involvement in the drug use, Yoacham responded: "No, he didn't."

Yoacham's testimony came at the end of Article 32 evidentiary hearings and complicates the Army's efforts to prosecute Bennitt. Fort Lewis command must now decide whether to move ahead with a court-martial that could result in Bennitt serving up to 82 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

"She has no motive to fabricate and no bias in this case," said Capt. Don Michael Barbour, a defense attorney for Bennitt before asking an Army investigating officer to recommend that all charges be dismissed because a court-martial would not likely result in a conviction.

But prosecutors dispute that Yoacham, 16, offered an accurate account of the night of Feb. 14, and also say that the drug consumption detailed in her testimony would not have been enough to cause an overdose death.

"She certainly indicated some problems with her memory, and when questioned she indicated there were many details she had forgotten," said Capt. John Schriver, a prosecuting attorney, in final remarks at the hearing.

King's death in the barracks focused public attention on lax procedures that allowed underage girls to party in soldiers' barracks and led to a crackdown on minors coming onto the post without parents or guardians. King and Yoacham ended up passed out on Bennitt's bed in the barracks, with King dying of an overdose and Yoacham hospitalized for days.

Prosecutors have sought to blame Bennitt. They note that in a Feb. 20 interview with investigators, Bennitt said he had given money to King to purchase Xanax, an anti-depression drug. He also admitted crushing Opana, a pain reliever, so it could be snorted by King at the barracks.

In earlier hearings, an Army investigator testified Bennitt had been illegally buying prescription pills from another Army private in the summer of 2008, and began obtaining prescription drugs from a female friend of King's, including the day before she died.

Defense attorneys say Bennitt was sleep-deprived and emotionally distraught when he made those admissions and have asked the Army to ignore that statement and give weight to an earlier one in which he denied any involvement with the drugs. But during hearings in May and earlier in June, defense attorneys were unable to locate Yoacham to testify and give her version of the evening.

Reporters were initially told by the Army that the hearing would start Thursday afternoon, but the hearing started in the morning, so media were not present for much of Yoacham's testimony.

She testified King was dating the then-19-year-old Bennitt. She said she never saw Bennitt buy drugs for the girls, and the soldier didn't know about the drugs the girls took Feb. 14.

She testified she and King shared an Opana pill at about 11 a.m. that day while they were still off the post. Then, that night at the barracks, King and Yoacham went into the barracks bathroom, where King took out a Xanax pill for them to take.

Yoacham and King went to a couch, and then to the bed.

King was found dead in the barracks at 3:30 a.m. Feb. 15, while Yoacham was found unconscious.