Florida killer cop driven by jealousy now faces death row, execution

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Killer cop Otto Lenke has now joined 256 other condemned men and women on Florida’s death row.

Lenke, 67, faces lethal injection for the barbaric Feb. 17, 2021 slaying of love rival mechanic Richard Benson, 57, in St. Lucie County.

The Sunshine State is second overall in the number of convicted killers on its death row. Only California has more doomed men and women.

Florida busy executing killers

So far this year, the state has put 17 condemned on the night train to Nowheresville. Another five have been sentenced to death.

Last week, it was Lenke’s turn at bat.

“I remember being in a room with the Indian River County Sheriff’s detectives, probably with over 100 years of combined experience, and their jaws dropped when they saw this video because it was probably one of the most heinous things we’ve ever seen,” Assistant State Attorney Brandon White told Treasure Coast News.

Circuit Court Judge Michael Linn described the murder as “one of the most heinous, atrocious, and cruel ways imaginable.”

Prosecutors said that Lenke — boiling with jealous rage — got in his vehicle and drove 40 minutes to Fast Frank’s Cycle Concepts in Fort Pierce and waited another 20 minutes. He then entered the store and shot Benson in the back three times.

Attack captured on CCTV

His bloodlust sated but temporarily, Lenke proceeded to pour two containers of “denatured alcohol” over the gravely wounded Benson and set him ablaze while he was still alive. When Benson tried to flee, Lenke dragged him back into the store.

The horrific attack was captured on CCTV.

Benson’s crime was dating a woman the cop had previously had a romance with. Prosecutors said his cold and calculated plan” to murder Benson came after Lenke was spurned by his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Diggs.

Why didn’t she ‘love him’?

It was Diggs who identified the killer on CCTV, being tipped by his peculiar walk. It also captured the would be killer removing his license plates before unleashing horror.

According to cops, Lenke had known Diggs for more than a decade and had recently been in contact with her. On January 19, 2021, Lenke delivered a handmade wooden boat to his former lover, at which point he asked “why she did not love him and asked if it was because she was seeing someone.”

That was the moment he decided to kill Benson. He was arrested two days later and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in May. In Florida, a first-degree murder conviction equals death penalty.

However, Lenke’s case will need to be reviewed by the state Supreme Court before he hears the executioner’s song.

More executions to come in 2026

Florida’s most recent execution was that of  James Robertson, 63, on Oct. 13. The career criminal murdered his cellmate specifically to land a bunk on death row. Robertson declined all appeals as he was executed for for the 2009 murder.

The state’s next scheduled execution will be cop killer William Reaves Jr. on October 20. He was sentenced to death for the cold-blooded murder of an Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy, occurred on Sept. 23, 1986, in Vero Beach.

The planned execution of Reaves will be followed by the dispatch of Jesse Guardado on Nov. 5.  Guardado was convicted of the Sept. 13, 2004, murder and robbery of 75-year-old Jackie Malone in Walton County. Malone had previously helped Guardado find housing and work after a prior prison release.

bhunter@postmedia.com

On X: @HunterTOSun

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