A man who admitted to killing a young woman in her Dundalk home took the stand Thursday for two hours of dramatic testimony in the murder-for-hire trial of the victim's then-boyfriend.
Alexander Charles Bennett, 36, told Baltimore County Circuit Court jurors that he traveled from Colorado and strangled Heidi Bernadzikowski, 24, at the behest of Stephen Michael Cooke Jr., who is accused of orchestrating Bernadzikowski's death for insurance money.
Dressed in a red jumpsuit, with his hair pulled back into a pony tail, Bennett described in detail the arrangement he says he and his longtime friend, Grant A. Lewis, made with Cooke 15 years ago.
Cooke, 44, faces charges including first-degree murder. Bennett told the jury that Lewis was a middle man and communicated online with Cooke, who "wanted to hire someone to kill his girlfriend for insurance money." The pair was to be paid $60,000.
"It was supposed to come from the insurance money collected after the job was done," Bennett said. The friends planned to open a night club with the money, but never got paid by Cooke.
The murder took place in 2000, but the case went cold until a few years ago, when new DNA evidence from underneath Bernadzikowski's fingernails linked Bennett to the scene. Arrested in 2012, Bennett was scheduled to go to trial in 2014 when he entered into a plea agreement and implicated Lewis and Cooke in the alleged plot.
Bennett testified against Cooke as part of that agreement, in which he will receive a life sentence with all but 30 years suspended. He cried at times, and said his faith in God ultimately led him to tell the truth.
"I wanted to be a human being," Bennett said. "I wanted to give a family some type of peace, because I am a father, and I have a daughter."
In October, Bennett also testified against Lewis, who was convicted of murder in Bernadzikowski's death.
Defense attorney Tara LeCompte implied that jurors could not trust Bennett, pointing out that he could have faced life in prison if not for the plea agreement. She asked him at one point about his education.
Bennett said he went to Denver School of the Arts, received a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, and had experience performing in musicals.
"So you're a trained actor?" LeCompte asked.
"I guess you could say that I have a talent and a gift, yes," Bennett replied.
LeCompte also pointed out how Bennett had originally lied to detectives when confronted with the DNA evidence, saying a woman had attacked and scratched him at a bus stop.
But throughout his testimony, Bennett maintained that he was now finally telling the truth. He described how Lewis bought him a one-way plane ticket to Baltimore. He arrived with no money. Lewis had given him printouts of MapQuest directions to Bernadzikowski and Cooke's home, and to downtown Baltimore, where Bernadzikowski worked as a customer service representative.
After landing, Bennett tried to walk from the airport to Dundalk. A police officer stopped him and warned it was dangerous to walk on the highway, and then gave hime a ride, he said.
For weeks, Bennett said, he had nowhere to stay. He slept in bus stops and stole food to survive. Every day, he called Lewis collect from pay phones. He grew frustrated living on the streets with no money.
Bennett said he met Cooke twice while in the Baltimore area – once in the home Cooke shared with Bernadzikowski, and a second time at a bus stop. On April 20, 2000, Bennett said, Cooke dropped Bernadzikowski off at the house, where Bennett was waiting inside.
Bennett said Cooke had left a key for him, but he could not remember exactly where. He said he attacked Bernadzikowski when she got into the house, and she fought back. Althought the original plan was to make the death look like an accident, Bennett said he strangled her, and then cut her throat to make sure she was dead.
He panicked and ransacked the house to make it look like a botched burglary. He wrote "#1" in lipstick on the wall near Bernadzikowski's body, trying to suggest to investigators that Bernadzikowski had died at the hands of a serial killer.
Over the years, Bennett said, he tried to push memories of what he did out of his mind. But he recognized Bernadzikowski when detectives showed him pictures more than a decade later, because he never forgot her face.
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