Death Penalty to Be Sought in Rape, Slaying : Courts: Carpet installer faces trial in the death of a Laguna Hills woman he had worked for. He is also charged in the earlier rape and robbery of a Costa Mesa woman.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that they will seek the death penalty for a 24-year-old carpet installer accused of raping and killing a Laguna Hills woman for whom he had worked last year.

Eric Wayne Bennett of Fallbrook was indicted in January in connection with the bludgeoning death in October of 50-year-old Marie Evans Powell and a separate rape and robbery of a Costa Mesa woman two weeks earlier.

The murder charge against Bennett includes allegations of special circumstances--that the slaying took place during a rape and burglary--meaning Bennett could receive the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if he is convicted. Trial is set to begin in December.

“We feel it’s an appropriate case for the death penalty, given the circumstances of the crime,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn Kirkwood said.

Bennett’s defense lawyers said the former Costa Mesa-based flooring installer is innocent.

“He didn’t do it,” Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia said. The lawyer declined to discuss details of his planned murder defense, but said, “Most of (Bennett’s) time is accounted for on the night of the crime.”

Gumlia said that seeking a death sentence is unwarranted because Bennett has no previous criminal record.

The prosecution alleges that Bennett, who worked for a Costa Mesa flooring company at the time of the attacks, sodomized and bludgeoned Powell, who was found dead on the lower level of her Laguna Hills condominium on Oct. 14. Bennett had installed linoleum in Powell’s home in the 22400 block of Caminito Tecate and had made two visits there before the murder took place.

Bennett also was charged with sexual assault and robbery in connection with a Sept. 27 attack on a 40-year-old woman who was robbed and raped at knifepoint in the bedroom of her Costa Mesa apartment.

Police allege that Bennett, who had recently moved to Costa Mesa with his wife and two young sons, slipped into the apartment in Costa Mesa through an open door and then robbed the woman and raped her. Police said Bennett did not know the victim and had not worked for her.

Police said DNA testing of evidence taken from both victims matched Bennett’s blood samples.

Bennett’s relatives said he was visiting bars in Newport Beach by himself on Oct. 13, the last night Powell was seen alive. His wife, Karen Bennett, has said she stopped at the bars three times to visit him out of fear of being alone because a neighbor had been raped days earlier.

His mother, Rita Bennett, insisted her son is innocent and decried the prosecution’s decision to seek the death penalty.

“I think it’s horrible. I just think it’s not right and a big mistake,” Rita Bennett said from her home in Fallbrook, in San Diego County. “You’re at their mercy. Hopefully, there will be mercy.”