The Wednesday shooting of a mother in Buffalo has not only sparked an areawide hunt for her estranged husband accused of the killing, but an apparent statewide political firestorm too.
Top Republicans like gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and state Republican Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy are expressing outrage because the suspect wanted for killing Keaira Bennefield in front of her three children had been released from custody in Cheektowaga Town Court the previous night. They maintain that the victim would never have encountered the man police suspect may have shot her – Adam R. Bennefield – at Shawnee and Richlawn avenues around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Zeldin cited the incident during his Thursday remarks before the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, reiterating his opposition to laws approved in 2019 that allowed the suspect to be released on his own recognizance despite a Sept. 28 charge of domestic violence against the victim.
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Under the 2019 law, judges are not able to set bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature revised the bail laws earlier this year to give judges some discretion, but "dangerousness" is still not a factor judges can use to set bail.
"You just had a mother of three kids shot yesterday ... where the day before he was arraigned and released on his own recognizance because he was not bail eligible," Zeldin said Thursday. "Then yesterday he murders his wife in front of their three kids."
On Friday, Langworthy intensified the criticism during a news conference at Republican Headquarters in downtown Buffalo. The chairman, also a candidate on Nov. 8 for the 23rd Congressional District, claimed to reporters that Keaira Bennefield was so terrified of her husband that she donned a bulletproof vest to bring her children to school.
"This really is a serious and horrific failure of bail reform laws," Langworthy said. "This is chilling to the bone. But for the changes to our criminal justice system in 2019, this would never have happened."
The Hochul campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But it is expected that the death gaining widespread attention for its brutality and exposure to three young children will figure prominently in a Republican campaign hinging on criticism of bail reform and other initiatives spurred by the 2019 start of Democratic dominance in Albany.
Langworthy revved up the effort Friday following Zeldin's initial comments the previous day. He said the suspect sought for questioning "had no business being free" after Keaira Bennefield told police he had displayed a knife and box cutter during the Sept. 28 incident. Adam Bennefield turned himself in and was released in light of the new rules, but Langworthy said previous regulations would have granted the judge discretion to deny release.
"The only thing that would have stopped him was being behind bars in a jail cell," Langworthy said.
Because the new bail reforms (later modified to an extent by the Legislature and governor) were adopted as part of the overall state budget, Langworthy claims hearings and full discussion of the concept never took place.
"That's what happens when you use the budget to achieve something like this," he said. "There should have been a major, bipartisan discussion in all 62 counties of New York."
Like Zeldin the previous day, he acknowledged that some reforms were necessary. While making the unlikely suggestion of a special session to address the bail laws, he noted that Hochul has sought more "data" before considering more changes.
"We could hand them a spreadsheet," he said. "Maybe that will make them feel better.
"They're just trying to buy time to get through this election," the chairman added.
Police on Saturday said they had obtained an arrested warrant for Adam Bennefield after he was charged with second-degree murder and that he remained at-large.
