FL v. BENAYER (2007)

An elderly Boca Raton man was accused of shooting his former girlfriend’s boss outside a synagogue after a Rosh Hashanah service in 2005. Prosecutors argued that Marc Benayer, 81, wanted to kill 44-year old Jonathan Samuels and his business partner, Mark Levy, because the men helped Benayer’s ex-girlfriend seek a restraining order against him. Samuels died about nine months after Benayer shot him twice in the back. Benayer, who acted as his own lawyer, claimed the shooting was an accident, and that Samuels’ death was due to a surgical mistake not the shooting. While behind bars, Benayer also allegedly tried to hire a hitman to kill Levy and his former defense attorney. In reality, the hitman was an undercover Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy. While Benayer had been diagnosed with dementia, a personality disorder and the early onset of Alzheimer’s, doctors examined him before the trial and declared him competent.

FL v. BENAYER (2007)