Death Benefit is a
drama based on a true story. Steve Keeney is a very successful
corporate attorney in Kentucky. At church one day, Louanne
Wilkens asks him if he can help her get the money she is owed
by her insurance company. It seems that Louanne's daughter,
Melissa, was killed in California when she fell off a cliff
and the insurance company has not paid Louanne for her
daughter's burial expenses. Steve feels sorry for Louanne, so
he offers to call the insurance company, thinking that when
the insurance company gets a phone call from a prestigious
lawyer, they will send out a check immediately. However, when
he calls he finds out the insurance company is holding the
check because there is an investigation pending. A life
insurance policy was taken out on Melissa the day before her
death by BJ and Virginia McGinnis, the people Melissa was
staying with at the time.
Steve is suspicious
of the McGinnis's and decides to look into the matter further.
He finds out that Virginia's five year old daughter, Cynthia,
had also been killed and Virginia had started over eleven
fires before Melissa's death and had collected on these
insurance policies. Steve gets enough evidence together to try
and put Virginia McGinnis in jail for the murder of Melissa
Wilkens, but the judge says his evidence is inadmissible
because Cynthia's death and the fires were before Melissa's
death, which makes his evidence irrelevant to the case.
Steve decides to try
a different tactic. He takes the jury out to Monterey where
Melissa fell and proves to the jury that BJ McGinnis pushed
Melissa off the cliff while Virginia stood watching and then
continued to take pictures of the scenery. Before the trial,
BJ McGinnis died of emphysema. The jury found Virginia
McGinnis guilty of premeditated murder and murder for profit.
She is currently serving a life sentence without possibility
of parole.
Animal Action:
When Steve is
investigating Cynthia McGinnis's death, he goes to the barn
where the little girl's body was found and listens to the
sheriff explain how she accidentally hung herself while she
was standing on a tractor. As Steve listens to the story, he
looks around and briefly envisions the little girl. She has
sad eyes and is just sitting on her pony. To achieve this
vision, the wrangler merely positioned the little girl on the
horse. The little girl held the reins and walked the horse
about 20 feet to the second wrangler.
In another scene
where Steve is gathering evidence against Virginia, he is
talking with Dick Coates, her first husband, and chickens are
seen in the far background. The trainer had simply placed
grain on the ground to get the chickens to remain in that
particular area.
