Bobby Kent (né Khayam; May 12, 1973 – July 14, 1993) was a 20-year-old American man who was murdered by seven people, including his best friend, Martin Joseph "Marty" Puccio Jr (born March 21, 1973) in Weston, Florida. The murder was adapted into the 2001 film Bully.

Events before the murder

Bobby Kent, the son of Iranian immigrants Fred and Farah Kent (original surname was Khayam), attended South Broward High School in the South Florida suburb of Hollywood, Florida.

Marty Puccio is an Italian-American, and was raised Catholic.

Kent and Puccio had experimented with making gay porn movies, hoping to distribute them to local shops. Neither Kent nor Puccio actually participated in these movies, but, rather, directed them and coaxed a man in his 40s to perform on camera. Kent tried to peddle a movie, titled Rough Boys, to porn shops across South Florida. None took him up on the offer, due to the poor audio and video quality as well as the lack of any sexual activities in the film beyond the man dancing nude and playing with a dildo. Willis claimed Connelly asked her to come to Connelly's house to discuss murdering Bobby Kent. Willis went to Connelly's house and brought two friends, her current boyfriend, Donald Semenec (aged 17), and Heather Swallers (aged 18). Connelly had brought along her mother's pistol, intending to kill Kent while he was distracted by sexual activity with Willis, but was unable to go through with shooting him. The group assembled their weapons: between them, they had two knives, a lead pipe, and a baseball bat.

When they arrived at the site, Willis, in accordance with the plan, took Kent off to a secluded spot where they were talking. Swallers joined them there. While she and Willis distracted Kent, Semenec came up and stabbed Kent in the back of the neck with a knife. When Kent asked for Puccio's help, Puccio stuck a knife in Kent's stomach. but Puccio continued to stab him. When Kent tried to flee, Puccio, Semenec, and Derek Kaufman followed him and continued wounding him. Kaufman then approached and hit Kent in the head with the baseball bat, which was the final blow. After this, Dzvirko, Semenec, Puccio, and Kaufman helped dump Kent's body on the edge of the shore of the marsh, in the belief that alligators would eat the decaying body.

Aftermath

In the days following the crime, many of the conspirators confessed to various other people. In 1997, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that Puccio should not be executed due to mitigating factors, so his death sentence was vacated and he was resentenced to life in prison, concurrent with his existing 30-year sentence for conspiracy, with parole eligibility occurring in 25 years. , he remains in custody at the Everglades Correctional Institution, inland from Miami, Florida.

  • Donald Semenec was found guilty of second-degree murder, but at his May 1995 sentencing, the judge chose to give him the equivalent of a first-degree murder sentence of life in prison. , he remains in custody at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution, north of Okeechobee, Florida.
  • Derek Kaufman was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder; in June 1995, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years, plus a consecutive 30-year sentence for conspiracy. , he remains in custody at the Marion Correctional Institution, north of Ocala, Florida.

The four remaining perpetrators had all been released from Florida prisons by February 2004:

  • Lisa Connelly, who with Alice Willis was the driving force behind the murder conspiracy, Her sentence was overturned on appeal as unduly harsh, and was reduced in 1998 to 22 years. As of 2013, she was a certified optician living in Pennsylvania, was married and had a then-6-year-old child, in addition to her then-19-year-old daughter with Puccio, who was born while Connelly and Puccio were both in jail pending their murder and conspiracy trials.
  • Alice Willis, who with Lisa Connelly was the driving force behind the murder conspiracy, The murder sentence was reduced on appeal to 17 years, to be followed by 40 years of probation. After having served less than 7 years, she was released in September 2001. As of 2013, she was a homemaker and parent living in Florida. After having served less than 5 years, he was released in October 1999. As of 2013, he was a former long-haul truck driver who had settled in Missouri in 2009 as a single parent to raise his daughter. As of 2013, she was living in Georgia. wrote the 1997 best-selling true crime book Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge.) and Roger Pullis into the 2001 film Bully, directed by Larry Clark. In the film, Kent was portrayed by Nick Stahl, Puccio was portrayed by Brad Renfro, Willis was portrayed by Bijou Phillips, Connelly was portrayed by Rachel Miner, Semenec was portrayed by Michael Pitt, Swallers was portrayed by Kelli Garner, Dzvirko was portrayed by Daniel Franzese, and Kaufman was portrayed by Leo Fitzpatrick.

The story was covered on American Justice, Forensic Files, and Murder Among Friends. The 2001 Forensic Files episode, "Payback", includes an interview with Derek Dzvirko about the murder.

References

  • Decision on Appeal leading to vacating the Death Penalty.
  • Richey, Warren. "Man, 22, Gets Life Sentence For Role In Kent Murder." Sun-Sentinel. June 13, 1995.
  • Sewell, Dan. "Murder Bares Sordid Teen Culture : Crime: Death probe unveils a suburban network involved in prostitution, pornography and robbery." Los Angeles Times. August 15, 1993.