BURLINGTON — The architect of one of Vermont’s most horrific crimes will die behind bars.
Michael Jacques, 48, of Randolph, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Burlington Tuesday to life in prison plus 70 years with no possibility for parole. In August, Jacques pleaded guilty to six federal counts, including kidnapping with death resulting for the 2008 abduction, rape and killing of his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett of Braintree.
The courtroom was packed and members of the audience included Attorney General William Sorrell, Director of the Vermont State Police Col. Thomas L’Esperance and Allen Gilbert, executive director of the state chapter of the ACLU.
Four members of Bennett’s family gave statements to the court before Jacques, sitting in the courtroom in a light blue dress shirt, was sentenced. Jim Bennett, the girl’s father, said his daughter, “was, is and will forever be a beautiful girl who will be forever missed.”
He said in many ways, his daughter being gone still didn’t seem real to him. Bennett said he doesn’t want to be sad when he thinks about his daughter, but it’s hard to get the images of what Jacques did to her out of his mind. He said Jacques gave Brooke Bennett a death sentence without a second thought and he hoped Jacques would “rot in prison.”
Brooke Bennett’s grandmother Lucinda Milne addressed Jacques directly saying in the past she loved and trusted him. She said what he has done cannot be changed, an act which she called one of the most horrific crimes known to man.
Milne said part of her died when Brooke died and she hopes Jacques will be sorry some day. “Rot in prison, Michael,” she said. “Hell is waiting for you.”
Brooke’s older sister, Savannah Andrus, said she is still haunted by her sister’s death and the pain never leaves her. She called Jacques a “waste of flesh” and said after Tuesday, he no longer exists to her.
When Jacques dies, Andrus said she would spit on his grave and celebrate.
Cassandra Adams, Brooke’s mother, recalled back when Brooke was born in 1995. She talked about what Brooke was like as a baby and said she misses her daughter every day and she’ll never be able to hold her in her arms again.
Adams called Jacques a coward and ordered him to look at her. She called Jacques a “filthy pig” and said she hates and despises him. “Hell seems too nice for you,” she said.
Before the family members spoke, U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan laid out what happened in the case. Nolan said it all started with a phone call back in 2003 when a man with a scary voice commanded another girl, referred to as “J1” and who was 9 years
old at the time, to look under her pillow. When she did, Nolan said she found a note that said she was one of three who had been selected to enter a “sex training” program for young girls by a fake cartel called the “Breckenridge Club.” He said the note also stated the first girl to perform oral sex on a man would live and the other two would be killed. The note indicated that Jacques would be her “trainer.”
Nolan said Jacques created email accounts with fake names as a way for the “club” to communicate with the girl in order to tell her what sex acts she was to do with Jacques. If the girl resisted, Nolan said she was told she and her family would be killed. Nolan said Jacques even went so far as to kill family pets to show the “club” was serious. Nolan said this went on until the girl was 14 years old and it took considerable time and effort to convince the girl there was no such thing as the “club,” that it was all Jacques.
In the end, Jacques used his control of the girl to help him lure Brooke to his home in June 2008. Nolan said Brooke agreed to come to Jacques home under the guise of a pool party at which a schoolyard crush of Bennett’s would be in attendance. The guise included text messages, written by Jacques and sent by J1 to Brooke Bennett, that J1 said came from the crush.
Nolan said Jacques also brought the girl to Cumberland Farms in Randolph the morning of her murder and with surveillance cameras at the store recording, had Bennett walk in the opposite direction of Jacques vehicle only to be picked up by Jacques a little ways down the road. Nolan said Jacques convinced her to do this by telling her it was part of the pool party where everyone at the party would have to do something strange that would be explained later.
At his home, Nolan said Jacques convinced Brooke Bennett to come into his bedroom by telling her he wanted to show her a magic trick. Once he got her there, Nolan said, he drugged her, raped her, and then pulled a plastic Wal-Mart shopping bag over her head to suffocate her.
Police didn’t take long to connect Jacques to the case as he was arrested on a separate charge three days after Bennett went missing, and arraigned on federal murder charges in August 2008. Bennett’s body was found about a mile from Jacques home in a shallow grave.
In court Tuesday, Jacques said nothing he can say can compare to what he’s done. He said his abuse of trust was unfathomable. Jacques said he was given love and trust, but gave pain and tragedy in return. He said he was sorry and he was ashamed.
U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions said it was his intent with the life sentence that Jacques never again experience freedom. He called Jacques’ actions a “crime of unspeakable horror” and Jacques himself a cold hearted killer.
Jacques in August also pleaded guilty to four counts of production of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. Under the terms of the plea deal, he will serve a 70-year sentence for those convictions concurrent to his life sentence for the kidnapping and murder.
Nolan said the production of the child pornography charges stemmed from VHS tapes found in a swamp behind Jacques home which showed Jacques engaged in sex acts with J1.
Prosecutors had initially been seeking the death penalty in the case. Vermont law does not allow for execution upon criminal conviction, but Jacques’ case was under federal jurisdiction. Back when Jacques changed his plea in August, U.S. District Attorney Tristram Coffin released a statement saying the prospect of forcing J1 to sit on the witness stand during a jury trial figured in the government’s decision to accept the plea bargain.
Bennett’s rape and murder is the latest in a long history of sex crimes by Jacques. According to court records, he has a history of sexually assaulting girls that dates back more than 30 years. In 1985, a pregnant 15-year-old who was seeking an abortion told police she was carrying Jacques’ child, and said he had been assaulting her since she was 10 or 11 years old. Jacques, who was 18 at the time, was arraigned on a charge of sexual assault but that charge was later dismissed, “reportedly after the Jacques family pressured the victim,” the court records state.
In 1987, court records say Jacques sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at his Barre apartment after giving her alcohol. However, after interviewing the victim, prosecutors offered him a plea agreement in which Jacques received a three-year deferred sentence. The conviction was expunged from his record. In 2013, the victim died of a drug overdose. In 1993, Jacques was convicted for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Rutland High School student. For this conviction, Jacques received a six-to-20-year sentence. He was placed on probation in 1996. In 2000, he requested and was granted release from ongoing sex offender treatment. In 2006, Jacques was released from probation for his 1993 sexual assault conviction.
(Eric Blaisdell is a reporter with the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.)
