Benoit Relatives Step into Legal Ring

[samanthajane13]

Josh Grossberg Thu Aug 16, 12:48 PM ET


Los Angeles (E! Online) -

Chris Benoit's family members are ready to face off in their own macabre version of a steel-cage match.

The father of the late WWE superstar joined with the family of Benoit's wife, Nancy—whom he murdered in June along with their son, Daniel, before committing suicide at their Georgia home—to file a motion to figure out who will inherit the grappler's estate.

Michael Benoit, the executor of his son's assets, and Nancy's parents, Paul and Maureen Toffolonis of Daytona Beach, Florida, jointly requested that a Fayette County (Georgia) Superior Court determine the order which Benoit went about the killings.

It may be morbid, but the order of death is crucial for all would-be heirs.
If authorities decide Benoit's 43-year-old wife, who did not have a will, was the first to die, then that means her holdings would pass to seven-year-old Daniel. With Daniel also slain, the estate in turn would belong to his two half-siblings, David and Megan Benoit, from the Canadian Crippler's first marriage to Martina Benoit.

However, if investigators rule that Daniel died first, then Nancy's family would be in line to assume legal control of the estate, which includes two posh residences, millions of dollars of earnings from the 40-year-old Benoit's days in the WWE and several profitable investments.

Messages left with Cary Ichter, Michael Benoit's attorney, and Richard Decker, a lawyer representing the Toffolonis, were not returned Thursday.
But Ichter earlier stated that his client wants to provide for David and Megan, who live in Canada with their mother.

"Michael Benoit is interested in making sure his grandchildren are taken care of. He has no other interest, and he isn't going to get anything out of this," Ichter told ABC News. "He feels a great deal of compassion for Nancy's family and understands this has been a tragedy for them as well."
Decker, meanwhile, has expressed skepticism regarding the official version of events.

"We watched what the D.A. has said publicly, and that they think Chris killed Nancy and then killed Daniel, but we've come to learn that there are some facts that might indicate that that's not exactly the way it happened," Decker told ABC News.

Under a quirk of Georgia law, Chris Benoit is legally deemed the first to die even though he committed suicide after murdering his wife and child. The so-called "slayer statute" was instituted to ensure that neither a murderer nor his heirs profit from such a heinous offense.

But the law means the surviving family members are forced to jockey for a rather ghoulish goal: having their loved one declared the last person to die so they can pocket the riches.

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard has already released his timeline for the slayings based on evidence collected at the scene by the county sheriff's department and autopsies conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Citing different levels of decomposition with the bodies, the D.A. said that Nancy was most likely strangled to death sometime on June 22 by Benoit, who then used a choke hold to asphyxiate his son the next day. The last time all three were seen alive was on Friday evening, when a maintenance crew visited the home to clean the pool.

Ballard told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he remains "pretty confident with what the medical examiners found," which would support Michael Benoit's claims that the inheritance should go to the grappler's children from his first marriage.

The first hearing on the motion is set for Aug. 28 in Probate Court. However, a final ruling on the order of death isn't expected until police have closed the books on the investigation.