Chase Benoit, the convicted murderer who stabbed Morgan Hill resident Cody Flores to death in 2015, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the crime last week, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney David Pandori.
Benoit, 22 of Morgan Hill, was sentenced at a hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Jose May 12. He was convicted March 10, following a two-month jury trial, of second degree murder and personal use of a knife for stabbing Flores during a house party in east Morgan Hill May 31, 2015.
Benoit will serve the sentence for murder “consecutive to one year prison for use of knife in the murder of Cody Flores,” Pandori added.
Benoit testified during the trial that he alone killed Flores, 23, with a knife outside the party on East Main Avenue. He claimed he killed him out fear for his own life as the two had a long-standing dispute going back to 2011, when Flores stabbed Benoit’s brother during a fight.
Benoit stabbed Flores at least 14 times with the knife, after chasing him through a dark field between East Main and Diana avenues, according to law enforcement authorities and other witnesses who testified during the trial.
Flores died at the hospital shortly after the stabbing.
While the DA’s office previously charged Spencer Smith, also 22 of Morgan Hill, with the murder of Flores, the same jury found him not guilty of the crime March 10. He was tried in the same courtroom as Benoit.
Smith, a longtime friend of Benoit’s, previously pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen firearm and possession of an unregistered firearm. He was also sentenced May 12, to one year in county jail, Pandori said. He received credit for time served while awaiting trial for the murder charge, and was released after the May 12 hearing.
Smith’s firearm charges are not directly related to the stabbing death of Flores. The gun was found in a backpack he dropped off at the home of Shyann Surber, who hosted the May 31, 2015 party. He left the backpack at the home earlier that evening.
