Burglar Strikes After Learning Man Died Body Lay On Floor While Apartment Ransacked

A man accused of burglarizing a Spokane apartment while the resident’s body lay on the floor told a detective he didn’t think it was a big deal because the victim “didn’t need these possessions any longer.”

Johnnie L. Longest, 33, was charged with residential burglary Tuesday.

Detectives say in court records that Longest stole a television, stereo, two guitars and some blank checks from the apartment of Daniel Bennett.

Bennett’s former stepdaughter discovered him dead inside his apartment on East Magnesium on July 13.

The cause of the unemployed man’s death is still unknown, but authorities don’t think he was murdered.

Bennett, who had a history of health problems, had been dead for several days before Melissa Wallace found him, police said.

Wallace, who was “in a state of shock and didn’t know what to do,” did not notify police of her discovery right away, according to court records.

Instead, she went to a friend’s house in a panic, police Lt. Jerry Oien said Thursday.

Several people, including Longest, were in the house when Wallace told two friends about Bennett’s demise, court records state.

Longest told detectives he overheard the conversation and went to Bennett’s house later that night and stole several things.

“It was an opportunity that presented itself, and he took advantage of it,” Oien said.

Wallace called police the next day to report Bennett’s death.

Police identified Longest as a suspect in the burglary after he tried to cash one of the checks he stole from Bennett for $2,500. Longest used his own identification card while trying to cash the check, police said.

A teller at Bennett’s credit union became suspicious and called authorities.

Longest was arrested July 16 on an unrelated forgery charge.

Police found Bennett’s Master Card and Sears charge card in his pockets at the time of his arrest. More of the dead man’s property was found in a car Longest was driving, authorities said.

The next day, detectives went to the jail to interview him about the Bennett case and he confessed to the crime, court records state.

“Longest made the statement to me that the dead person didn’t need these possessions any longer,” Detective John Miller wrote in an affidavit.

, DataTimes