Betrayal In Blood. Michael Benson
by Kevin Bryant, she had discovered the man who might very well replace Kevin in her life.
Richard worked the night shift as a machine operator at a local factory. His job was at Schlegel, where they made industrial brushes, conveyor rollers, gasket seals of rubber or silicone, and various kinds of locks. Richard worked the night shift, midafternoon through eleven.
Tabby’s teller job at the M & T Bank was only part-time. She had Tuesdays and Thursdays off. It was during those days—before Richard Oliver went to work in the middle of the afternoon—that he and Tabby would get together. Most often she would go to his place.
The affair heated up even further on Valentine’s Day when Richard told Tabatha that he thought he was falling in love with her. After that, the frequency of their romantic trysts increased.
While Tabatha was seeking romance outside the home, things inside the home were kinkier than ever. February 22, 2003, was Kevin’s forty-fifth birthday, and there was a party on Pennicott Circle. According to a “Notice of Intent” later filed by Monroe County prosecutors, Kevin “partied with a dominatrix stripper, two escorts and approximately twenty guests.... His two young sons were in the house at the time.”
According to a co-worker at Tabby’s bank, Tabby herself hired the women for Kevin’s party. But Tabby wasn’t home for the dominatrix party. She and Richard Oliver were out having dinner.
CHAPTER 19
Army of One
In March 2003, Cyril Winebrenner decided he needed some discipline in his life. He left the Bryant home and joined the army. Cyril had hoped that the disciplined world of the military might help him get his head back on straight.
But that did not turn out to be the case. Cyril, in fact, was just as much a misfit in the army as he had been elsewhere. Before five weeks was up, the army decided that they wanted no more of Cyril Winebrenner and he was discharged.
His military service had lasted only one month. Although Cyril later would claim that he was discharged because his asthma would not allow him to complete boot camp, there are indications that Cyril’s lungs weren’t the only part of his body that was having trouble with army discipline.
His attempt to get his head back on straight hadn’t worked; then his stint in the army was over. He felt as if shame and anger had dominated his life—always had, always would. When he returned, he reunited with Cassidy Green, but their relationship became volatile. According to Cassidy, Cyril was a changed man after this latest failure. He was hostile toward her, and the world and he began to beat her.
CHAPTER 20
A Legal Problem
In early June 2003, things were volatile on several fronts in the house on Pennicott Circle. Kevin saw Tabby as a threat that needed to be dealt with soon; Cyril began to hit Cassidy; Tabby had had enough of Cyril and Cassidy in her house.
She had agreed to take Cyril in because he was family, and he needed a break. But she hadn’t banked on Cassidy being in the house, and the two of them were strung out most of the time.
The situation finally exploded when Tabatha kicked Cyril and Cassidy out of the Bryant home. One version of the story was that Tabby accused Cyril, now out of his head with coke addiction, of stealing $2,000.
Right around that time, Kevin began to think of Tabatha more coolly than ever. The situation was simple. He was a cuckold. She had to go. She was a legal problem, a problem to be taken care of. She was a problem that needed to be “disposed of.”
She couldn’t be allowed to take the kids. Perhaps she had already told him that she and the boys were going to split. Maybe she thought there was room for her and the boys in that house near Hilton that she had been visiting regularly.
She felt no guilt over her infidelity. She knew enough about Kevin’s lifestyle, before and during the time that she became a part of it, to know there was no way she was doing anything to her husband that he hadn’t already done to her—repeatedly.
On weekends Tabby still put the boys in the car and drove down to Greenwood. On Saturday nights Tabby, Samantha, Essie, and the boys would go to the local quarter-mile track for the stock car races. The driver Sam had been dating had become her fiancé, and one of Woodhull’s winningest drivers.
CHAPTER 21
Tabby’s Tail
Maybe it was the time Kevin visited his sons at their day-care center and one kid asked if he was the boys’ “other dad.” Whatever his inspiration of the moment, in June 2003, Kevin Bryant decided that he would be seeing his wife one day in court, and he wanted to have evidence on his side when that meeting took place. Perhaps he was already contemplating filing for divorce. He feared that she was about to leave him and he wanted to arm himself for what would be the inevitable custody battle.
In his practice, Kevin knew about private investigators. He worked with plenty of them, but he was hesitant to hire one who had been in his office. Tabby might recognize him and figure out what was up. He needed a stranger, so he called Louis Falvo, of the Falvo Agency, Statewide Investigations.
Although they had never met, Falvo’s reputation preceded him. Kevin knew that Falvo did good work. He was a member of Associated Licensed Detectives of New York State and a former regional director of Upstate New York. Falvo’s background was in military intelligence (ONI, Office of Naval Intelligence, to be exact), although he wasn’t exactly chatty about that part of his life. He had been a licensed private eye for more than twenty-five years, and was considered tops in his field.
As it says in Falvo’s online advertisement: “Our commitment to client service and the utilization of the best technology available has made us a premier investigative agency.” And Falvo lent some of that high technology to the services he provided for Kevin. Kevin said that he suspected that Tabatha was having an affair and he wanted proof. Falvo knew what to do.
Between June 13 to July 1, 2003, on seven occasions, the private investigator tailed Tabatha as she sneaked out to visit Richard Oliver. During those seven surveillances, Falvo accumulated the evidence Kevin needed.
Falvo did what he was hired to do. He had proven conclusively that Tabatha was having an affair. Clearly, Kevin thought, she was unfit to be a mother. After each day and evening of surveillance, Falvo gave Kevin a call and reported on the day’s activities.
Then, on July 2, 2003, following his final day of surveillance, Falvo gave Kevin an in-person report. Falvo could have told Kevin until he was blue in the face that Tabby was trysting regularly with a boyfriend, and it wouldn’t have had the effect of the visual aids Falvo brought with him.
Falvo’s was a multimedia presentation. First there were photos. Then out came the videotape.
“VCR?” Falvo asked.
“Sure, right in here,” Kevin replied.
Falvo played a tape for his client that showed Tabatha meeting a man in a shopping plaza, walking and holding hands, getting into her car with him, disappearing into his house, going to a party. All Tabby with Richard Oliver.
Nine days after Kevin watched the video, he filed for divorce at the Monroe County Clerk of Court’s Office. The divorce papers would never be served.
CHAPTER 22
Something in Mind
Sometime during the first half of July, a cocaine dealer named Donny “Rocky” Sands (pseudonym) visited the Bryant home and spoke with Kevin. According to Rocky, who apparently knew Cyril, Kevin tried to hire him to kill Tabatha.
Rocky refused; he wasn’t a killer. But, Rocky said, he was willing to help.
“I could plant cocaine in her car and arrange for her to be arrested,” Rocky suggested.
Kevin liked the idea. With a cocaine