November 12, 2009
Orlando executive flies high, crashes
Man's company ferried Crist to California
Kris Wernowsky
kwernowsky@pnj.com
He's a multi-millionaire, with assets of up $110 million, sitting in a cell in Escambia County Jail, charged
with running an international cocaine ring.
A Brazilian foreign national, he legally lives in Orlando with his wife and 10-year-old daughter.
His more than a dozen businesses include a charter jet company so prominent that in late 2008 it ferried
Gov. Charlie Crist to a climate-change conference hosted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in
Beverly Hills.
Pedro "Pete" Benevides, 40, will make his first appearance today in federal district court in Pensacola.
Prosecutors are expected to ask U.S. Magistrate Judge Miles Davis to revoke an Orlando judge's
previous order allowing Benevides' release from jail pending trial if he posts a $1 million bond, among
other conditions.
Benevides' arrest has its roots at Pensacola Aviation Center, a private facility near the grounds of
Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport.
Last January, pilot Kenneth Jerome Henderson of Gulf Breeze was arrested as he taxied in with more
than 5 kilograms of cocaine on board.
He was a pilot for Skyview Aviation, though he wasn't flying a Skyview plane at the time.
Right away, Henderson began talking to federal authorities, saying that he was part of a long-standing
conspiracy to bring in cocaine from the Caribbean.
He also implicated Marvin Jackson, another Skyview pilot. Jackson was arrested the next month.
Jackson, too, began talking to authorities.
Henderson and Jackson, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent would later testify, said Benevides
regularly sent them on trips to the Dominican Republic to bring back cocaine.
Largely on the strength of that information, Benevides was charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine
and money laundering. He was arrested Sept. 16 in Orlando.
Meanwhile, Henderson and Jackson pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Henderson was sentenced to 17 years in prison; Jackson to nine years. They'd faced up to life in prison,
and their cooperation with the government helped them get lighter terms.
Now Benevides' case is playing out. Facing the possibility of a life sentence, he's mounting a vigorous
defense.
One man, two sides
Benevides' jail mug shot is that of a disheveled, graying man who looks like he's been through rough
times.
It belies the photo of a handsome man arm-in-arm with an attractive woman on the Web site of Skyview
Aviation.
Benevides' past includes several property crimes, such as failing to pay for furniture and riding in a
stolen car, for which he received probation, most recently in 1994. His lawyers say those crimes are long
behind him, having taken place before he became "a settled family man and property owner."
By all appearances, Benevides today is a highly successful businessman who made it big with the
aviation company as well as an exotic car business, a funeral home, a construction company and
various financial businesses.
In November 2008, Skyview Aviation flew Crist to and from the California conference.
State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper in March
that Skyview offered the flight as an in-kind donation, but the party was not familiar with Skyview so
wrote a $39,000 check to cover the flight.
Benevides told the Sun Sentinel that his company did not cash the check because it does not have a
federal certificate to carry paying passengers. He added that the flight on a Canadair CL-Challenger
was actually worth about $60,000.
"It's like driving a Bentley," he said. "Fourteen seats with a bed in the back, plasma TVs. ... It's a nice
plane. Real nice."
Benevides said the company received other requests from the Governor's Office to fly the governor.
Greer said last week that the party used Skyview for only that one flight and never had an ongoing
relationship with Benevides.
Stuck in jail
Shortly after Benevides' arrest, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karla Spaulding presided over a four-day hearing
on whether he should be kept in jail until his trial.
The essentially undisputed evidence was that Henderson and Jackson flew a Skyview airplane to the
Dominican Republic last July, stayed at a resort for several days, then returned to Florida. The two
claimed that Benevides provided them $100,000 to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine.
Defense attorney Kevin Darken of Tampa disputed that, saying the trip to the Dominican Republic was
for pleasure, with both men accompanied by a woman.
Darken also pointed out that Henderson and Jackson gave investigators conflicting stories about the trip
with numerous inconsistencies in their accounts.
"The magistrate judge was asked to believe an unlikely, inconsistent tale told by convicted conspirators,"
Darken would later write in a court filing.
Darken also noted that there's no corroborating evidence against Benevides like fingerprints,
photographs or recorded conversations.
Several high-powered people vouched for Benevides.
Emmit Foster, CEO of National Bank of Georgia, and Cleveland Hightower, president of Bankers Credit
Corp., said they wouldn't hesitate to do business with him even in light of the charges.
"He's hard working and we trust him," Darken reported the two bankers telling him. "He does what he
says he's going to do, and we would lend him more money."
'Merely one fact'
In her ruling, Spaulding appeared underwhelmed with the evidence against Benevides and was strongly
critical of Pensacola prosecutors.
She objected to DEA agent Keith Humphreys testifying about what Jackson and Henderson said, rather
than their testifying in person. And she criticized the DEA and local prosecutors for refusing to provide
DEA reports that she said could have allowed Humphreys to refresh his memory as to inconsistencies in
the accounts of Jackson and Henderson.
"It does undercut the weight of the evidence in this case," Spaulding said, according to a transcript.
Spaulding said the strongest evidence against Benevides was that $150,000 was withdrawn from a
Benevides bank account at about the same time as the latest trip to Dominican Republic.
Darken said in court papers that the withdrawal "may appear suspicious." But he said it's "merely one
fact," and Benevides will explain it at trial.
Ultimately, Spaulding ruled that Benevides could be released from jail if he meets several conditions:
-- He posts a $1 million bond.
-- He be subject to electronic monitoring.
-- Third parties take custody of his airplanes.
-- He surrender his passport.
-- He stay home, except when he's at work or has approval to travel in central or northern Florida.
'Not so fast'
Benevides remains in jail while he works to satisfies the conditions of his release.
But federal prosecutors in Pensacola are saying, in effect, "Not so fast."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Swaim has filed a motion asking that Spaulding's order allowing
Benevides' release to be revoked and he be kept in jail pending trial.
The local prosecutors are hoping that Magistrate Davis will provide a more favorable ruling than they got
from Spaulding.
Swaim's motion contends Benevides would flee to his native Brazil if freed. And, it says, the Brazilian
government has never extradited a citizen to the United States based on pending federal criminal
charges.
The motion also says the only reason Benevides is still in this country is because of a custody dispute
with his ex-wife and because of a multi-million dollar business dispute.
"There is evidence to indicate that the defendant has sent associates to Brazil to establish a residence
for him there in anticipation of fleeing the United States, and has discussed the possible murder of one
person, and the kidnapping of another to expedite the resolution of the custody and debt questions ..."
Swaim wrote in his motion.
But Darken said those allegations were provided by an ex-employee of Benevides who vowed to get
back at him after being fired.
The allegations also were brought up before Spaulding, and she ultimately decided the ex-employee's
testimony was not believable and said she gave it "no weight."
Benevides' lawyer also said Spaulding's order should stand because the Pensacola prosecutors
wouldn't provide the DEA reports that the judge wanted.
"Disobedience to judicial orders should not be rewarded," Darken said.