Picture this. A packed Florida courtroom. Dead silence. And then, oh my god. Oh my god. A 73-year-old grandmother explodes in front of judges, lawyers, and cameras. She’s screaming. She’s shaking her head so hard you’d think it might snap right off. Her face is twisted in what looks like absolute shock. But here’s the kicker, y’all.
This ain’t just any grandma freaking out in court. This is Margaret Thompson and her son Robert just got arraigned for orchestrating one of the most coldblooded calculated murders Florida has ever seen. David Bennett, a brilliant law professor, a father of two young boys shot in the head in his own garage in broad daylight.
And the person who allegedly paid to have him killed. The ex-father-in-law who just couldn’t let go. This case has everything. A bitter divorce. A family with money and connections who thought they were untouchable. Hitman caught on wire tap and a mother who stood by her son even when the walls were closing in. But what mama didn’t know, the FBI had been listening, watching, waiting, building a case so airtight that her little outburst in court wasn’t going to change a damn thing.
Today on Women Justice Files, we’re diving deep into the Thompson family murder for higher plot. A case where privilege, pride, and pure evil collided. Where a mother’s love twisted into something dark and deadly? How far would you go to protect your family? Would you lie? Would you cover up a murder? Would you scream in a courtroom playing the shocked mother when you knew you knew exactly what your son had done? Buckle up, folks.
This story is about to take you places you never expected. But before we dive in, so let’s rewind. Let’s talk about the Thompsons because to understand how this whole nightmare went down, you got to know where these people came from. The Thompson family wasn’t just wealthy. They were Coral Springs, Florida royalty.
We’re talking big house, fancy cars, country club memberships, the whole nine yards. Richard and Margaret Thompson built their empire from the ground up. Richard was a successful periodontist with a thriving practice. Margaret. She was the matriarch, the queen bee, the kind of woman who ran her household like a CEO runs a Fortune 500 company.
And their kids, well, they had big expectations to live up to. Robert Thompson was the golden child in many ways. Smart as hell, charming when he wanted to be, and determined to follow in daddy’s footsteps. He went to dental school, specialized in perododontics, and opened up his own practice in South Florida.
From the outside, this dude had it made. Successful practice pulling in serious money. We’re talking half a million dollars a year, easy. He had the sports cars, the boat, the lifestyle. But here’s the thing, y’all. Money doesn’t buy character. And privilege doesn’t mean someone ain’t capable of doing something absolutely monstrous. Now, let’s talk about Robert’s little sister, Jennifer.
Jennifer Thompson was brilliant. Like legitimately brilliant. She went to law school, got herself a law degree, and seemed destined for greatness. She was the pride of the family. Smart, beautiful, accomplished. But Jennifer had one problem. According to her family, she fell in love with the wrong guy.
David Bennett, a Canadian-B born law professor who landed a prestigious position at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Jennifer met him in the academic world, and they seemed like a perfect match, both lawyers, both intellectuals, both ambitious. They got married in 2006, had two beautiful boys. From the outside, they looked like they had the perfect life.
But behind closed doors, this marriage was falling apart. See, the Thompson family had a problem with David from the jump. He wasn’t wealthy. He wasn’t from their world. And most importantly, he wanted to stay in Tallahassee for his career. Jennifer wanted to move back to South Florida, closer to mommy and daddy. David said no. His career was in Tallahassee.
His tenure was at FSU. That’s where the boys would grow up. And the Thompsons, they didn’t take no for an answer. Like ever, the divorce got ugly. Real ugly. We’re talking custody battles, allegations, legal warfare that dragged on for years. Jennifer filed for divorce in 2012. And from that moment on, the Thompson family was on a mission.
They wanted those boys back in South Florida. They wanted David out of the picture. Now, get this. There are emails, court documents, testimony, all showing that the Thompson family, especially Margaret, was obsessed with getting Jennifer and those kids away from David. Margaret would send Jennifer these long emails about how terrible David was, how he was controlling, how Jennifer needed to fight harder, how they needed to do something about the situation.
That phrase right there, do something. Remember that? It’s gonna come back in a big bad way. The custody arrangement was finalized in early 2013. Joint custody. The boys would stay in Tallahassee with both parents. David wasn’t budging on the move. David loved those boys more than anything. He was a devoted father.
Everyone who knew him said so. His whole life revolved around his kids and his career. But to the Thompsons, David Bennett was an obstacle, a problem, someone standing between them and what they wanted. And problems in their world could be eliminated. Let’s get back to Robert. Because while his sister was fighting a custody battle, Robert was living his best life.
Or at least that’s what he wanted everyone to think. This dude had the flashy lifestyle down to a science. expensive dinners, bottle service at clubs, dating younger women, playing the role of successful, eligible bachelor. And then there was Nicole Martinez. Nicole was different from the usual women in Robert’s circle. She was beautiful, yeah, but she came from a rough background.
She’d been involved with some questionable people. She had two kids from a previous relationship with a man named Carlos Rivera. Hold on to that name. It’s crucial. Robert and Nicole started dating sometime in 2013. And by all accounts, Robert was smitten. He hired her to work at his dental practice.
Paid her way more than the job was worth. Bought her gifts. Helped her out financially. But here’s where it gets messy, folks. Nicole was still connected to her ex, Carlos Rivera. And Carlos, he wasn’t exactly a boy scout. Carlos Rivera was connected to the Latin King’s gang in Miami. He had a criminal record. He was known to law enforcement.
This was not a man you wanted in your orbit if you were trying to stay clean. But Robert, Robert kept Nicole close. Real close. And when the Thompson family needed something done, when they needed someone who could connect them to the kind of people who do very bad things for money, well, Nicole was right there.
Now, we got to talk about Margaret because this woman is at the center of everything. Margaret Thompson was 73 years old when she screamed in that courtroom. 73, a grandmother, someone who should be baking cookies and spoiling her grandkids, right? But Margaret Thompson wasn’t your typical grandma. Not by a long shot.
According to people who knew the family, Margaret ran that household with an iron fist. what she said went. Her kids, they listened. Her husband, Richard, he backed her up on everything. And when it came to Jennifer’s situation with David Bennett, Margaret was relentless. She hated that her daughter was stuck in Tallahassee.
Hated that she couldn’t see her grandkids whenever she wanted. Hated David for standing in the way. 7 hours. That’s how far apart they were. Seven hours that might as well have been 7,000 miles to Margaret Thompson. In the months leading up to David’s murder, Margaret became increasingly desperate. Phone records would later show frequent calls between Margaret and Robert, long conversations, late night talks.
What were they talking about? What was being planned in those conversations? The FBI would spend years trying to answer that question. And when they finally got their answer, it was more disturbing than anyone could have imagined. So, here’s where we are by the spring of 2014. You’ve got a bitter divorce that’s been finalized.
You’ve got a family that’s used to getting what they want, unable to accept the custody arrangement. You’ve got a mother who’s obsessed with bringing her daughter home. You’ve got a son with money connections and a girlfriend who’s connected to some very dangerous people. And you’ve got David Bennett just living his life, teaching his classes, raising his boys, completely unaware that he’s been marked.
Little did he know the countdown had already started. July 18th, 2014. That’s the day everything changed. The day the Thompson family’s alleged plan came to fruition. The day David Bennett was murdered. July 18th, 2014. Friday morning, Tallahassee, Florida. It’s hot, humid, typical summer day. David Bennett wakes up like he does every morning, gets ready, has his coffee. He’s got a full day ahead.
David lived in the Benton Hills neighborhood, nice area, good schools, the kind of place where neighbors know each other, kids ride bikes, and nothing bad is supposed to happen. David had his boys that week. He dropped them off at daycare earlier that morning. He had some work to do at home before heading to his office at FSU. Around 10:30 a.m.
, David’s at home. He’s in his office, probably working on an article or prepping for the upcoming semester. His mind is on his work, his kids, his life. He ain’t thinking about danger. Why would he? But here’s what David doesn’t know. About six blocks away, two men are watching, waiting. Carlos Rivera and Miguel Santos.
Nicole Martinez’s ex-boyfriend and his buddy. They’ve driven all the way from Miami to Tallahassee about seven hours. They’ve been in town since the day before. Now, these ain’t sophisticated hitmen, y’all. These are street level criminals. Gangconnected dudes who have done some bad stuff before, but nothing quite like this.
They’re driving a silver Toyota Prius. A Prius? Let that sink in. You’re planning a murder and you rent a Prius. Not exactly the criminal masterminds of the century, but they’re about to do something absolutely evil. The FBI would later track this Prius all over Tallahassee, at David’s kids’ daycare center, at his gym, driving past his house multiple times.
These guys had been following David, learning his routine, figuring out when to strike. Imagine that, folks. going about your normal life and there are people watching your every move, tracking you, planning when you’ll be most vulnerable. Around 11:00 a.m., David gets in his car. He’s heading to the gym for his regular workout.
Maybe he’s thinking about his afternoon schedule. Maybe he’s thinking about picking up his boys later. He drives to the gym, works out, normal Friday routine. Around 100 p.m., he’s done. He gets back in his Honda Accord, blasts the AC against the Florida heat, and heads home. Y’all, this is the part that gets me every time. David’s just living his life.
He’s thinking about his kids, his weekend plans. He’s probably sweaty from the gym, ready to grab a shower before tackling more work. He has no idea these are the last normal moments of his life. At approximately 1:45 p.m., that silver Prius pulls into David’s neighborhood again. But this time, it’s different. This time, Carlos and Miguel aren’t just watching. They’re moving into position.
They park on Trescot Drive, right near David’s house. The Prius is positioned where they can see David’s driveway, where they can move fast when they need to. Neighbors later reported seeing the Prius. Thought it was weird. You don’t see a lot of preuses in this neighborhood. You definitely don’t see the same one circling multiple times, but nobody called the cops.
Why would they? It’s just a car. Just some guy sitting there. If only they had known. At 2:08 p.m., David Bennett pulls into his driveway. His garage door opens. He pulls in. The door starts to close behind him. This is the moment. The moment Carlos and Miguel have been waiting for. The Prius pulls up fast. One of them jumps out, runs toward the garage. David’s still in his car.
He might be checking his phone, adjusting the air conditioning, grabbing his gym bag. He looks up. There’s a man at his car window, a stranger in his garage. And that stranger is holding a gun. One shot fired at close range. The bullet enters David’s head above his right eye. David slumps forward.
The killer runs back to the Prius. They peel out of there. The whole thing took less than 60 seconds. 60 seconds. That’s all it took to end the life of a 41-year-old law professor, a father of two young boys. A man who’d spent his whole life trying to make the world more just through his work. Gone just like that.
Those boys were three and four years old. They’d never really know their father, never get to grow up with him, never get his advice, his love, his guidance, all because someone decided he was in the way. David sitting in his car, bleeding, unconscious. The garage door is still partially open. His car is still running.
Here’s something that’s absolutely heartbreaking. David didn’t die immediately. He was alive when the killer ran away. Alive when that Prius sped off down the street. But he was alone, dying, and nobody knew. For almost two hours, David Bennett sat in that car, the AC still blowing, the engine still running, blood everywhere. At 3:58 p.m.
, nearly 2 hours later, a neighbor noticed David’s car in the garage with the door partially open. The engine running this whole time. That’s weird. That’s not normal. The neighbor walks over to check, looks in the car window, and sees David covered in blood, unconscious. The neighbor freaks out, calls 911, screams into the phone that someone’s been shot.
Within minutes, Tallahassee Police Department arrives. Fire, rescue, paramedics. They rush to David’s car. The scene is brutal. David’s alive, but barely. He’s got a gunshot wound to the head. He’s in critical condition. They work fast to stabilize him, get him out of the car onto a stretcher. The paramedics are pros, y’all.
They’ve seen bad stuff before, but this in this neighborhood in broad daylight. This is shocking even to them. They rush David to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital trauma unit. The doctors do everything they can, but the damage is too severe. The bullet destroyed critical parts of David’s brain. Even if he survived, he’d never be the same
. At 3:01 a.m. on July 19th, 2014, roughly 13 hours after he was shot, David Bennett was pronounced dead. A brilliant legal mind, a devoted father, a man who’d spent his career fighting for justice. Dead at 41. The Tallahassee community was in shock. FSU was in mourning. David’s friends and colleagues couldn’t believe it. Who would do this? Why? But here’s the thing that’s going to make your blood boil, folks.
While David was fighting for his life in that hospital, while doctors were desperately trying to save him, while his friends were rushing to be by his side, the people who allegedly paid for his murder, they were going about their normal lives like nothing happened. Tallahassee PD immediately launched a full investigation. This wasn’t a robbery.
David’s wallet was still in the car, his watch on his wrist, his phone untouched. This was a hit, a targeted assassination. Someone wanted David Bennett dead. But who and why? Lead detective James Wilson and his team started working the case immediately. They canvased the neighborhood, talked to every neighbor, looked at every security camera in a halfmile radius, and they caught a break, a big one.
Multiple neighbors had Ring cameras, security systems, and several of them caught footage of that silver Prius cruising the neighborhood multiple times that week. Even better, one camera caught a partial license plate. Now, get this. The detectives run that partial plate. They start checking with rental car companies and boom, they find it.
A silver Toyota Prius rented from Miami returned the day after the murder. rented under the name of Miguel Santos. The investigators didn’t know who that was yet, but they were about to find out. Now, let’s talk about how David’s ex-wife, Jennifer, reacted to his murder, because this is where things get really interesting.
Within hours of David’s death, Tallahassee PD went to notify Jennifer. She was, after all, the mother of David’s children and his ex-wife. Detective Wilson showed up at Jennifer’s door that evening, told her what happened, and Jennifer’s reaction. She seemed calm, too calm, some would later say.
She told investigators that she’d been in the area that day, had driven past David’s house, said it was a coincidence that she was just taking a different route. Uh-huh. Sure. Your ex-husband gets murdered, and you just happened to drive past his house around the time it happened. Nothing suspicious about that at all. Jennifer told detectives she didn’t know who would want to hurt David.
Couldn’t think of anyone. Sure, they’d had a contentious divorce, but nothing that would lead to murder. But investigators noticed something. Jennifer didn’t seem shocked. Didn’t break down crying. Didn’t react the way most people react when they learn their children’s father has been murdered.
She seemed almost prepared for the news. Within 24 hours of David’s murder, the Thompson family had already called a lawyer. Not just any lawyer, a high-powered criminal defense attorney. Now, why would you need a criminal defense lawyer if your daughter’s ex-husband was murdered by some random person? Unless you already knew you might need one.
Phone records from that weekend show something interesting. Lots of calls between Jennifer, Robert, and Margaret. Long conversations back and forth, back and forth. What were they talking about? Getting their stories straight, figuring out what to tell police. We may never know exactly what was said, but investigators definitely noticed the pattern.
Robert Thompson, when questioned by police, also seemed oddly unconcerned about his former brother-in-law’s murder. He told investigators he barely knew David. They weren’t close. The divorce was contentious, but it was over now. But here’s what Robert didn’t know. His name had already come up in the investigation.
Not from evidence yet, but from David’s friends. See, David had told people he was worried about Jennifer’s family. Said they were angry about the custody situation. One friend later testified that David had mentioned Robert specifically. Said Robert had made some veiled threats during the divorce proceedings. David had been scared.
Not scared enough to go to police, but scared enough to tell his friends, to document his concerns. Little did he know, those concerns would become evidence in a murder investigation. As investigators dug deeper into Miguel Santos and the Prius, they found his connection to Carlos Rivera. And then they found something else.
Carlos’s ex-girlfriend, the mother of his children, a woman named Nicole Martinez. And where did Nicole work? Who was she dating in the summer of 2014? Robert Thompson. Boom. There’s the connection, y’all. The link between a law professor’s murder in Tallahassee and a wealthy family in South Florida. Miguel Santos and Carlos Rivera were the shooters.
Nicole Martinez was the middleman. And Robert Thompson, he was allegedly the money man, the one who paid for it all, but proving it. That was going to take years because the Thompson family had money. They had lawyers, and they knew how to play the game. But here’s what they didn’t count on. They didn’t count on the Tallahassee PD being this thorough.
This determined, this unwilling to let a professor’s murder go unsolved, and they definitely didn’t count on one of their own hitmen flipping on them. All right, so we’re in late 2014 now. David Bennett’s been dead for a few months. His kids are with Jennifer, who’s moved back to South Florida with her parents, just like the Thompson family wanted all along.
Coincidence? The investigators didn’t think so. Detective Wilson and his team had identified Miguel Santos and Carlos Rivera as the likely shooters. The rental car evidence was solid. Surveillance footage put them in Tallahassee. Their movements matched the timeline perfectly. But here’s the problem.
Having suspects and proving they did it two different things, y’all. They needed more. They needed evidence. They needed a confession. Or better yet, they needed someone to flip. January 2016, nearly 18 months after David’s murder, investigators finally had enough to make a move. Carlos Rivera was arrested in Miami, charged with firstdegree murder.
The evidence against him was strong. The Prius rental trail. Cell phone records putting him in Tallahassee. Witness statements from people who’d seen the car in David’s neighborhood. But Carlos, he wasn’t talking. He lawyered up immediately. Denied everything. Said he didn’t know anything about any murder. And then boom, they arrested Nicole Martinez, too. Charged her as an accessory.
Said she was the go-between, the one who connected the hitman to the money. Now, investigators were hoping Nicole would flip. See, Nicole wasn’t a hardened criminal like Carlos. She had kids. She had something to lose, but Nicole stayed quiet. She got herself a lawyer and shut her mouth.
The case was solid against the shooters. But the people who allegedly paid for the hit, Robert, Margaret, the Thompson family, they were still free, still living their lives. And that drove David’s friends and family absolutely crazy. May 2016, this is when everything changed, folks. This is when the case against the Thompsons really started to come together.
Miguel Santos, facing life in prison, decided to flip. He reached out to prosecutors, said he wanted to make a deal. He’d tell them everything, every detail about the murder, who planned it, who paid for it, how it all went down. And what he told them, it was damning as hell. Santos told investigators that he and Carlos had been hired to kill David Bennett.
They were paid $100,000 for the hit, split between them, so $50,000 each to murder a man. $50,000. That’s what David Bennett’s life was worth to these people. The price of a decent car. But here’s the key part. Santos said Nicole Martinez had approached Carlos about the job. Said her boyfriend had a problem that needed to be solved.
Someone needed to be taken care of. And who was Nicole’s boyfriend at the time? Robert Thompson. Santos didn’t deal directly with Robert. Never met him. But according to Santos, Nicole made it clear the money was coming from her boyfriend, the rich dentist, the guy whose sister needed her ex-husband out of the picture.
Now, here’s where the FBI gets involved and things get really interesting, y’all. In 2016, after Santos’s confession, the FBI decided to run what they call a bump operation on Robert Thompson. Basically, they wanted to see how he’d react if he thought the investigation was closing in. They sent an undercover agent posing as a Latin King’s gang member to Robert’s dental office.
The agent told Robert that law enforcement was asking questions about the Rivera family, asking about Nicole, implied that people might start talking to save themselves. The goal? Get Robert nervous. See if he’d do something stupid. Maybe reach out to Nicole, maybe try to pay people off, maybe run. And Robert, he absolutely panicked.
This dude went straight into damage control mode. He called Nicole, had meetings with family, started acting exactly like a guilty man who’s about to get caught. But the FBI’s bump operation revealed something even more important. They were recording everything. phone calls, conversations, and they were about to get evidence that would blow this case wide open.
After the FBI bump, investigators got a warrant to wiretap Robert’s phone. They were listening to everything, every call, every conversation, and what they heard. Oh my god, y’all. It was gold. They recorded Robert talking to Nicole about the murder, about how they needed to be careful, about how they couldn’t let anyone know what really happened.
In one call, Robert tells Nicole that if our friends get arrested, they need to keep their mouth shut. He talks about money, about making sure people are taken care of so they don’t talk. In another conversation, Robert discusses the bump with his mom, Margaret. And this conversation is absolutely wild. Robert tells Margaret that someone came to his office asking questions, someone connected to Nicole’s ex.
Margaret immediately understands the implications. She doesn’t ask, “What are you talking about?” or “Why would someone be asking questions?” She asks how much money they need to make this go away. Let that sink in, folks. A mother hearing that someone is asking questions about a murder investigation immediately jumps to paying people off.
Not what murder, not why would they think you’re involved, straight to how much do we need to pay. That ain’t the reaction of an innocent person, y’all. That’s consciousness of guilt right there. As the investigation continued, more evidence piled up. Bank records showed suspicious transactions. Robert had withdrawn large amounts of cash around the time of the murder, amounts that matched what Santos said they’d been paid.
There were Venmo transactions between Robert and Nicole for amounts that made no sense for a dental assistant salary. $50 here, $200 there, labeled with weird messages like for the boys. Now, Robert’s defense was that he was just helping Nicole out. She had kids. He was being generous. Just a boyfriend helping his girlfriend. But the timeline was damning.
large payments to Nicole right before and right after the murder. Payments that stopped once Nicole and Robert broke up. April 2019, almost five years after David’s murder, Nicole Martinez goes to trial. Prosecutors lay out their case. Miguel Santos testifies against her. Phone records, financial evidence, the whole nine yards.
The prosecution’s theory was clear. Nicole was the middleman. Robert paid her. She paid Carlos and Miguel. She was the crucial link in the murder for higher plot. The defense argued Nicole was innocent. Said Carlos had done this without her knowledge. Said she was just Robert’s girlfriend who happened to know the wrong people. After days of deliberations, the jury came back hung. Couldn’t reach a verdict.
Mistrial. The prosecutors were devastated, y’all. They’d worked for years to build this case, and now they’d have to try it all again, but they weren’t giving up. Not even close. 6 months later, Carlos Rivera went to trial. And this time, the jury didn’t hesitate. Guilty firstdegree murder. Carlos was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The actual shooter was going away forever, but investigators weren’t satisfied. They had the trigger man, but they wanted the puppet masters. They wanted the people who paid for David’s death. They wanted Robert Thompson. From 2019 to 2022, the FBI and Tallahassee PD continued building their case against Robert.
They reintered witnesses, analyzed more phone calls, followed the money trail. Robert, meanwhile, was still living his life in South Florida, still practicing dentistry, still maintaining his innocence, still insisting he had nothing to do with David Bennett’s murder. But the walls were closing in, and he had to know it. The case had become huge news in Florida. People were demanding justice.
David’s family was relentless in pushing for the Thompsons to be charged. The pressure on law enforcement was enormous. And finally, investigators decided they had enough. April 21st, 2022, nearly eight years after David Bennett’s murder, Robert Thompson was arrested at Miami International Airport. Get this, y’all.
Robert and his mom Margaret were literally at the airport about to board a plane to Vietnam. A one-way ticket situation. Running? Yeah, sure looked like it. Robert was booked into Miami Dade County Jail, charged with firstdegree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder. No bond. He was held until trial.
And that’s when Margaret Thompson, the matriarch, the mother who’d do anything to protect her family, watched her son get dragged into a nightmare she allegedly helped create. October 2023, Leyon County Courthouse in Tallahassee. The trial everyone had been waiting for finally begins. Robert Thompson, the successful dentist, the golden child of a wealthy family, was facing life in prison for allegedly ordering the murder of his former brother-in-law.
The courtroom was packed, y’all. Media everywhere. David’s family and friends. The Thompson family, including Margaret, sitting in support. The stakes couldn’t be higher. If convicted, Robert would spend the rest of his life behind bars. If acquitted, the investigation into David Bennett’s murder might never lead to the rest of the Thompson family.
Lead prosecutor Sarah Mitchell had been working this case for years, and she was ready. In her opening statement, Mitchell laid it all out. told the jury about the bitter divorce between David and Jennifer, about how the Thompson family couldn’t accept that David wouldn’t let Jennifer move back to South Florida.
She walked the jury through the evidence, phone records, financial transactions, wiretapped conversations, Miguel Santos’s testimony about being hired to kill David Bennett, and most damning of all, those recorded conversations between Robert and Nicole. between Robert and his mother. Conversations where they discussed paying people to keep quiet about a murder.
Mitchell told the jury, “Robert Thompson decided David Bennett was a problem that could be solved with money. He hired Hitman through his girlfriend. He paid them $100,000.” And he thought he’d gotten away with it. But here’s what Robert Thompson didn’t count on. He didn’t count on Miguel Santos’s conscience.
He didn’t count on investigators being this thorough, and he didn’t count on being caught on tape discussing the very murder he claims to know nothing about. The prosecution star witness was Miguel Santos, the man who actually helped pull the trigger, the man who’d flipped and cooperated to save himself.
Santos walked into that courtroom in prison clothes, shackled, already serving his sentence, and he told the jury everything. He described how Nicole Martinez had approached Carlos about a job. How they’d been told there was a target in Tallahassee, a professor, someone’s ex-husband who needed to be eliminated. Santos testified.
We were told there was money involved. Good money. Nicole said her boyfriend needed this done. Said it was important to his family. The defense tried to shake Santos on cross-examination. Pointed out that he was a convicted murderer. asked why the jury should believe anything he said. But Santos stayed consistent. His story matched the evidence.
The phone records, the travel records, the money trail, everything lined up. But the most powerful evidence, Robert’s own words, y’all. The conversations he had with Nicole and his mother after the FBI bump. The prosecution played the recordings for the jury and you could see the impact on their faces as they listened to Robert discuss the investigation.
Discuss keeping people quiet, discuss paying money. In one call with Nicole, Robert says, “They’re asking questions. Our friends need to stay quiet. We need to make sure they’re taken care of.” When Nicole asks, “What happens if our friends don’t stay quiet?” Robert responds, “Then we’ve got a problem. a big problem.
The prosecution asked the jury, “What innocent person talks like that? What innocent person hearing about a murder investigation immediately starts talking about keeping people quiet and making sure they’re taken care of?” The conversation with Margaret was even worse. When Robert told his mother about the bump, about someone asking questions, Margaret didn’t react with confusion.
She reacted with immediate understanding. She asked, “How much? How much do they want?” Not, “What are you talking about? Not why would they think you’re involved?” Just straight to how much money. That’s consciousness of guilt, folks. That’s a mother who knows exactly what her son did. Forensic accountant testimony showed the money trail.
Large cash withdrawals from Robert’s accounts around the time of the murder. Venmo payments to Nicole that made no sense for her job. Robert had withdrawn $138,000 in cash in the months surrounding David’s murder. The defense claimed this was normal business expenses. Uh-huh. Sure. A successful dentist who makes half a million a year needs to withdraw $138,000 in cash for business expenses.
Nothing suspicious there. The prosecution showed the jury Venmo transactions between Robert and Nicole. payments labeled for the boys and other cryptic messages. Payments that continued for years after the murder, even after Robert and Nicole had broken up. Why would Robert keep paying his ex-girlfriend? The prosecution had a theory.
He was keeping her quiet, making sure she didn’t flip like Santos had, and it almost worked. Robert’s defense team had a tough job, y’all. The evidence was strong. The recordings were damning, but they had to try. Their strategy was to attack the credibility of Miguel Santos, to claim that Nicole Martinez had acted independently, that Robert had been her boyfriend, sure, but he didn’t know anything about a murder for hire plot.
They argued that the conversations Robert had after the FBI bump were just the reactions of a scared man, someone who realized he might look guilty because of his connection to Nicole, even though he was innocent. The defense also argued that Jennifer Thompson, who had not been charged, was a more likely suspect.
She was the one with the motive. She was the one who benefited from David’s death. But here’s the problem with that theory. Jennifer didn’t have connections to hitman. She didn’t have the ability to hire people to commit murder. Robert did through Nicole. And then, in a move that shocked some legal observers, Robert Thompson decided to testify in his own defense.
Robert walked to the witness stand in his suit, looking confident, trying to charm the jury the way he’d probably charmed patients and women his whole life. He told the jury he was innocent. said he loved his sister, sure, but he wouldn’t kill for her. Said the conversations on the wire taps were taken out of context.
He explained the cash withdrawals as business expenses. The payments to Nicole as helping out his girlfriend. He said the bump had scared him because he realized how bad it looked, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. But then came the cross-examination, and this is where things fell apart for Robert, y’all.
Prosecutor Mitchell went after him hard. She played the wire taps again, asked Robert to explain specific phrases, specific conversations. Why would an innocent man say these things, Robert stumbled, got defensive, started giving answers that didn’t quite add up? When asked why he immediately thought of paying people off when he heard about the investigation, Robert said, “I was just scared. I wasn’t thinking clearly.
” Mitchell shot back. Or were you thinking very clearly, thinking about how to protect yourself from a murder you’d arranged? The courtroom was silent. You could feel the weight of the moment. Throughout the trial, cameras caught Margaret Thompson’s reactions. She sat in the front row supporting her son, shaking her head at prosecution testimony, nodding along when the defense spoke.
Look, on one level, you can understand it, right? She’s a mother watching her son on trial for murder. That’s got to be devastating. But here’s what made it eerie, y’all. Margaret never looked shocked by the evidence. Never seemed surprised by what was being revealed. When the wire taps played, showing Margaret asking how much they needed to pay.
She didn’t look embarrassed or confused. She looked angry that it had been recorded. That’s not the reaction of someone who’s learning about their child’s crimes. That’s the reaction of someone who’s angry they got caught. Closing arguments came in mid- November 2023. Both sides gave it everything they had. The prosecution told the jury, “Follow the evidence. Follow the money.
Listen to Robert’s own words. The man who called his sister’s ex-husband a problem. The man who had connections to people who solve problems with violence. the man who paid those people right before and right after David Bennett was murdered. The defense argued Miguel Santos is a convicted murderer trying to save himself. The evidence is circumstantial.
Robert Thompson is guilty of having a bad girlfriend, not murder. But in the end, it came down to those recordings, Robert’s own voice, discussing the investigation, discussing keeping people quiet, discussing money. The jury got the case on November 6th, 2023. Now came the waiting game. For two days, that jury deliberated, going through evidence, listening to recordings again, debating the testimony, David’s family waited. His friends waited.
Everyone who’d been following this case for nearly a decade waited. Would Robert Thompson finally face justice for David Bennett’s murder? or would he walk free, leaving David’s family without answers? The jury was about to answer that question. November 6th, 2023. The courtroom is packed, every seat taken. Media cameras everywhere.
David Bennett’s family sits on one side. The Thompson family, including Margaret, sits on the other. The jury has reached a verdict after just 6 hours of deliberation. 6 hours, y’all. That’s fast. And in criminal trials, a fast verdict usually means one thing. The jury wasn’t struggling with the evidence.
Robert sits at the defense table. He’s wearing a suit. Trying to maintain that confidence he’d shown throughout the trial, but you can see it in his eyes. He’s scared. The baiff calls all rise. The judge enters. Everyone stands. This is it. The moment nearly a decade in the making. justice for David Bennett or a devastating defeat for his family and the investigators who’d worked so hard on this case.
The judge asks if the jury has reached a verdict. The fourperson stands. We have your honor. The verdict forms are handed to the judge. The judge reviews them, hands them back to the clerk. Robert Thompson is asked to stand. The clerk begins to read. In the matter of the state of Florida versus Robert Thompson on the count of firstdegree murder, we the jury find the defendant guilty.
The courtroom explodes. David’s family and friends burst into tears, hugging each other, nearly collapsing with relief. On the other side of the courtroom, Margaret Thompson screams. “Oh my god! Oh my god!” She’s shaking her head violently, back and forth, back and forth, like she can’t believe what she’s hearing. Like if she shakes her head hard enough, she can make it not true, but it is true.
Margaret, your son was just convicted of murder. The clerk continues reading, “The jury found Robert guilty on all counts. Firstde murder. Guilty. Conspiracy to commit murder. Guilty. Solicitation of murder. Guilty. Robert just stands there frozen. The color drains from his face. His lawyers put their hands on his shoulders trying to steady him. This is the moment, y’all.
The moment Robert Thompson realizes his life as he knew it is over. The fancy cars, the boat, the practice, the lifestyle, all gone. He’s going to prison for the rest of his life for ordering the murder of his sister’s ex-husband. The judge orders Robert to be remanded into custody immediately. No bond.
He’s led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. As he’s walking out, he looks back at his mother one time, just once. And the look on Margaret’s face, it’s pure devastation mixed with something else. Fear. Because Margaret knows if they convicted Robert, she could be next. Margaret continues freaking out in the courtroom. She’s crying, yelling.
Security has to calm her down. Her family is trying to comfort her, but she’s inconsolable. Now, look, I get it. She just watched her son get convicted of murder. That’s traumatic. Any mother would be upset. But here’s what’s interesting about Margaret’s reaction, y’all. She’s not acting shocked by the verdict. She’s not saying this is wrong.
My son is innocent. She’s acting like someone who knew this was possible. Someone who’s been dreading this moment. Someone who’s not surprised by the guilty verdict, just devastated that it happened. That’s the behavior of someone with guilty knowledge. Someone who knows exactly what her son did because she helped him do it.
Before sentencing, the court heard victim impact statements. David Bennett’s sister, his friends, colleagues from FSU, all stood up and told the court about the man they’d lost. David’s sister spoke through tears. My brother was a brilliant man, a loving father. He dedicated his life to justice and the law. And he was murdered because a family with money decided his life was inconvenient.
She talked about David’s sons, now teenagers growing up without their father, how they’d been robbed of his guidance, his love, his presence. A colleague from FSU said, “David was one of the finest legal minds I’ve ever known. he should be here teaching the next generation of lawyers. Instead, he’s gone because Robert Thompson valued his family’s convenience over a human life.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the courtroom, except maybe at the defense table. The judge addressed Robert Thompson directly. Mr. Thompson, you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers of orchestrating the murder of David Bennett. You used your wealth and your connections to hire killers. You thought you could escape justice.
You were wrong. The judge sentenced Robert to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He’ll never breathe free air again. He’ll die in a Florida state prison. Robert showed no emotion during sentencing. Just stared straight ahead. Maybe it hadn’t fully sunk in yet. Or maybe he’d finally run out of charm and confidence.
Robert’s conviction wasn’t the end of the story, folks. Not by a long shot. Within weeks of the verdict, the investigation into Margaret Thompson intensified. Those recorded conversations where she discussed paying people off. Those were evidence of conspiracy. In November 2023, just weeks after Robert’s conviction, Margaret Thompson was arrested.
She was charged as a co-conspirator in David Bennett’s murder. Charged with helping plan it, helping fund it, and helping cover it up. Margaret’s attorney claimed she was innocent. Said she was just a mother trying to protect her son, that she didn’t know anything about a murder plot. But those wire taps, Margaret, those wire taps where you asked how much to make the problem go away, those are going to be tough to explain.
And then there’s Jennifer, David’s ex-wife, the person who ultimately benefited most from his death. Jennifer Thompson has never been charged in connection with David’s murder. Prosecutors have said there’s not enough evidence to prove she was directly involved in the plot, but the questions remain.
Did she know? Did she participate in planning or was she kept in the dark by her family? The evidence against Jennifer is circumstantial. She drove past David’s house on the day of the murder, said it was coincidence. She didn’t seem shocked when police told her David had been killed. She immediately moved back to South Florida with the boys after David’s death.
Exactly what the family had wanted all along. David’s family and friends believe Jennifer knew. They believe she was part of it, but belief isn’t evidence. And without evidence, prosecutors can’t charge her. For now, Jennifer Thompson remains a free woman living in South Florida raising David’s sons.
Whether that will change remains to be seen. Oh, and Nicole Martinez. Remember her? The girlfriend who allegedly connected Robert to the hitman. After her first trial ended in a mistrial in 2019, Nicole was retrieded in 2022. This time, with even more evidence against Robert, the jury had no trouble connecting the dots. Nicole was convicted of firstdegree murder.
Sentenced to life in prison without parole. She’s serving her sentence in a Florida state prison. Still maintaining she was just Robert’s girlfriend. Still saying she didn’t know anything about a murder plot. Nobody’s buying it, Nicole. Nobody. So, let’s talk about what this case really shows us, y’all.
Because beyond the legal details and the courtroom drama, this is a story about privilege, entitlement, and the belief that money can solve any problem. The Thompson family had everything. Wealth, status, connections. They were used to getting what they wanted, used to being in control.
And when David Bennett stood in the way of what they wanted when he refused to let Jennifer move the kids to South Florida, they couldn’t accept it. Most families would have been frustrated, would have continued fighting in court, would have dealt with the inconvenience of the distance. But the Thompsons decided on a different solution.
murder for hire, $50,000 to make the problem go away. They thought their money and their connections would protect them. Thought they were smart enough to get away with it. Thought they were above the law. They were wrong. Forensic psychologists who have followed this case have pointed to classic narcissistic behavior in the Thompson family, particularly in Robert and Margaret.
Narcissists have a few key characteristics. y’all. They believe they’re special, that normal rules don’t apply to them. They lack empathy for others, and they’re willing to do anything to protect their self-image and get what they want. Robert exhibited all of these traits. He believed he was smarter than law enforcement. Believed he could hire hitman, cover his tracks, and never get caught.
Even when investigators were closing in, he maintained his arrogant confidence. And when that FBI bump happened, when Robert realized he might get caught, he didn’t react with remorse or horror at what he’d done. He reacted with anger and fear about being caught. That’s not how normal people react, folks. A normal person, if falsely accused of murder, would be shocked, would cooperate fully with police to clear their name.
Robert immediately started talking about paying people off, about keeping people quiet, about making problems go away. And Margaret, she exhibited the same traits. When Robert told her about the investigation, she didn’t say, “What are you talking about?” She said, “How much do they want?” That’s a family that operates outside normal moral boundaries.
That sees people as obstacles to be removed if they’re inconvenient. But the saddest part of this whole story, David’s boys, they were three and four years old when their father was murdered. They’re teenagers now growing up knowing that their father was killed. That members of their mother’s family were convicted of orchestrating his murder.
Imagine growing up with that knowledge, y’all. Your grandparents, your uncle, the people who are supposed to love and protect you paid to have your father killed. How do you process that? How do you reconcile that in your mind? David’s family has fought for years to maintain a relationship with the boys, to make sure they know who their father really was, what he stood for, how much he loved them.
But those boys are being raised by Jennifer in the Thompson family orbit. Growing up, hearing their mother’s version of events, the long-term psychological impact on those children, it’s going to be profound and heartbreaking. So, where do things stand now? As of early 2024, Robert Thompson is serving life without parole in a Florida state prison.
His appeals have been denied. He’ll die in prison. Margaret Thompson is awaiting trial on conspiracy and murder charges. If convicted, she’ll join her son in prison for life. Nicole Martinez is serving life without parole located in a women’s facility in Florida. Carlos Rivera has life without parole. Prison in Florida. Miguel Santos is serving a 19-year sentence after his plea deal.
Could be released in the late 2020s. Jennifer Thompson is living in South Florida. Not charged. Raising David’s sons. Richard Thompson, David’s father, is not charged. Health reportedly declining. This case has become a landmark in Murder for Hire prosecutions, y’all. It showed that even when the evidence is complicated, even when it takes years, law enforcement won’t give up on getting justice.
The wiretap evidence was crucial. Those recordings of Robert and Margaret discussing the investigation, discussing payments, discussing keeping people quiet. That’s what sealed the case. Legal experts say this case will be studied in law schools for years. as an example of how to build a circumstantial case, how to connect wealthy defendants to street level criminals, how to follow the money trail.
If there’s a message in this case, it’s this. Money doesn’t buy you immunity from justice. Privilege doesn’t make you untouchable and thinking you’re smarter than everyone else. That’s how you end up in prison for life. The Thompson family thought they could get away with murder. Literally, they thought their wealth, their connections, their careful planning would protect them.
But David Bennett’s friends, his family, the investigators who worked this case. They refused to let him be forgotten. Refused to let his murder go unsolved. And after nearly a decade of investigation, the truth came out. Justice was served. It doesn’t bring David back. It doesn’t undo the trauma his sons have experienced, but it shows that in the end, the law can reach anyone.
Even a wealthy family in South Florida who thought they were above it all. David Bennett should be alive today. He should be in his 50s now, watching his sons grow into young men, teaching them, guiding them, being the father he so desperately wanted to be. Instead, he’s gone. murdered because a family couldn’t accept a custody arrangement because they valued their convenience over a human life.
This case haunted me while researching it, y’all. The coldness of it, the calculation, the complete lack of empathy from the people who planned David’s death. But it also showed me something important. It showed me that justice can take a long time, but it can still arrive. That investigators who care won’t give up. that victim’s families can fight for years and eventually see results.
David’s family and friends never stopped fighting, never stopped demanding answers, never stopped pushing law enforcement to solve this case. And in the end, they got justice. Not the justice they wanted, which would be having David back, but the justice of seeing his killers and the people who hired them held accountable.
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Links are in the description. Next day on Women Justice Files, we’re covering a case that will blow your mind. A mother, a marriage, and a plot so twisted, so calculated that investigators couldn’t believe what they were uncovering. She thought she’d gotten away with it. She was wrong. Make sure you’re subscribed with notifications on so you don’t miss it.
Rest in peace, David Bennett. Your life mattered. Your work mattered. And the people who took you away from your sons will spend the rest of their lives paying for what they did. This is Women Justice Files. I’m your host, and I’ll see you in the next one. Stay safe out there, y’all. Thanks so much for watching this deep dive into the Robert Thompson case.
I know it was a long one, but there was just so much to cover. If you made it this far, you’re a real one. Seriously. Thank you for sticking with me through this whole story. Check out some of our other videos if you want more true crime content. We’ve covered everything from suburban murders to international conspiracies. And remember, if you have a case you want us to cover, drop it in the comments.
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