Pound Pup Legacy

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Joel has been convicted of the murder of Kelley Lindsey Fuss, a crime which took place 15 June 1999, of which he claims to be innocent.

Born as Joel Lee Bensing Jr. on May 16th 1966, son of Sandra Race and Joel Lee Bensing Sr. his life started out a nightmare.

His mother, an overweight girl, suffering from Bell's Palsy,  Sandra came from an abusive family in the poor parts of Atlanta ,GA.  She met Bensing Sr. at the age of seventeen. Hoping to have met her knight in shinging armor, she let Bensing Sr., a then 22 year old construction worker, persuade her to go with him to Oklahoma. When she informed her parents about her where-abouts, they threatened to have Bensing arrested for kidnapping. Upon their return to Atlanta her father beat her with a belt and forced the couple to get married. The wedding took place a couple of days later in Alabama.

A week into their marriage, Sandra found out her husband was on probation for molesting two children and for the remainder of their marriage he was in and out of jail, not providing for his fast growing family.

In 1966 Joel was born, soon followed by his sister, April.   In 1969, Sandra was again pregnant , this time she placed the girl (Sandy) for adoption, immediately after birth. Sandy has a daughter who was placed for adoption too.

Early 1970's Sandar spent time in a mental hospital and Joel and April were put in foster care. The two of them were adopted by a couple and had their names changed to Askew, but soon afterwards, Joel and April were split-up and Joel was subsequently adopted by the Gabriel family, from Lousiana. Again, this adoption failed, and Joel spent years in foster care going from family to family, many of them being abusive.

At the age of thirteen, Joel found his way back to his mother, who in the mean time, had served as "Mary Doe" in the Doe vs. Bolton case. This famous abortion case revolved around Sandra's pregnancy with Melissa,  born 11 June 1970, and placed for adoption immediately after birth. Sandra had also divorced Joel Bensing Sr., who was found guilty kidnapping and molesting three children (he served 10 of his 25 years and died in 1988). She married Fabian Valadez Domingues, who became Joel's stepfather when he returned to live with his mother. Domingues was abusive to both his wife and his step-son, which led Joel not to live with his mother until the age of sixteen. By then, Joel had become a big young man who was tall and strong, and worked as a mason. He chased Domingues away and started living with his mother again.

Joel by that time had started sub-contracting and made enough money to buy 10 acres of land and built a cabin. He married Tami, with whom he had a daughter, Jessica. The couple divorced and Joel went though a second and third failed relationship, while Jessica lived with him.

In 1989, Joel's mother had Melissa's records unsealed and they met. Soon after, Melissa, who by then was married to to Robert G. Able,  moved into Sandra's small apartment. Joel and Melissa developed an intimate relationship, out of which daughter Vicki was born. Sandra reported them to social services, which eventually led to investigations in 1999.

In 1996 Melissa's adoptive mother, Inez Fuss, was killed for which Melissa's adoptive sibling Charles Allen Fuss was convicted; at the time of this writing he is still incarcerated in Georgia. Three years later, another murder in the Fuss family took place, this time Kelley Lindsey Fuss, wife of David Fuss (one of the three adoptive children of Inez Fuss). At first, Melissa and Margaret (Inez Fuss' only biological child) were arrested for this murder. Melissa in exchange for a 10 year sentence for Robbery, turned on Joel, testified and plead against him. Margaret got ten years for voluntary man-slaughter, while Joel was went to trial and was convicted of murder (a life sentence) plus burglary (an additional sentence of 20 years).

As a result of the arrests Vicky was placed in foster care, while Jessica was placed in a juvenile group. By now Jessica has two children, both placed in foster care.

Joel's incarceration started 5 January 2001 with the earliest possibility of parole being 2013. August 1, 2007, Joel attempted to commit suicide for the eighth time. He has lost faith that he will ever be getting out of prison. His case is closely followed by Lori Carrangelo, who has devoted a page to him on her  website. While being in prison, Joel has written several letters to Lori, which can be found here.

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