Irvine Graduate Student Shoots-Kills Wife

On September 13, 2009 officials arrested Brian H. Benedict at his on-campus graduate student housing complex; he was a graduate student in physics at UC Irvine. The police arrived after witnesses claimed to have heard two gun shots. After hearing Benedict’s preliminary hearing, a Harbor Court judge has found sufficient evidence against Benedict for murdering his ex-wife Rebecca Clarke. Based on Irvine Police Department’s account of the incident Benedict hit Hughes with a hammer, she ran out of the house and Benedict chased after her. Hughes ran through a parking lot as her ex-husband fired at her twice, only one bullet wounded her. Hughes had arrived at Benedict’s home to pick up their four year old son. Benedict was paying child support in an amount which he claims he could not afford. He will be arraigned on October 12, 2010.