SANTA ANA – A convicted child m*lester third-striker who has spent nearly 40 years in prison for committing heinous acts of violence, including slitting his girlfriend’s throat and stabbing her five-year-old daughter’s eye out, has been sentenced to 25 years to life for brutally attacking his wife. The woman only managed to escape by banging on her neighbors’ doors while bloody and nearly n*de, begging for help.
Gary Blane Bentley, 65, of La Palma, was convicted on September 18, 2025, of two felony counts of corporal battery on a spouse resulting in a traumatic condition. He was sentenced to 25 years to life earlier this month.
On June 24, 2022, Bentley punched his wife of two years repeatedly in the face, dragging her back into the bedroom of their La Palma apartment before she broke free. The attack left the couple’s apartment covered in blood as the nearly n*de victim ran from her attacker, running outside to try to get help. The attack culminated years of unreported domestic violence against the victim. Bentley was on parole at the time, having served six years in state prison for an ind*cent exposure conviction in Los Angeles County.
La Palma police officers tracked Bentley down in Long Beach and arrested him.
Bentley was convicted of two prior “super strikes,” including a 1982 conviction in Los Angeles County for the attempted murder of his then-girlfriend and the maiming of her 5-year-old daughter, leaving the little girl permanently blind in one eye. He served 11 years in state prison for those crimes.
In 1990, Bentley was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he was convicted of continuously s*xually assaulting a child under the age of 14 in Los Angeles County. In 2007, he was sentenced to 25 years to life after being convicted of another s*x-related offense, but that sentence was overturned in 2009. In 2011, he was sentenced to six years in state prison after being convicted in Los Angeles County of ind*cent exposure with a prior conviction.
“Gary Bentley and the reign of terror he has inflicted on women and children throughout his entire life is exactly why California’s Three Strikes Law exists,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. ”There are certain individuals who have inflicted so much pain and violence on other human beings that they cannot continue to live among civilized society. For decades, Gary Bentley has committed crime after crime with callousness, without remorse, and there has not been a single period of time when he has lived a law-abiding life. Society is safer as a result of the incredibly advocacy of the La Palma Police Department and Deputy District Attorney Sharlene Mandella to ensure justice for the victim in this case and to prevent future women and children from becoming victimized.”
Deputy District Attorney Sharlene Mandella of the Family Protection Unit prosecuted this case.