It’s our job as the surviving loved ones to remember them; to spread love around their name; to honor them. I refuse to let my nephew be forgotten and I will spend my life making sure people remember.

My little sister, Kayla and her sweet boy, Bentley Troy

If you are new here I’m sure the title of this post came as a shock to you. You should read this post first. This is the raw uncut victim impact statement that I read to the court on the day that my nephews killer got sentenced. I didn’t edit this in anyway, I simply copied and pasted from the original word document that I wrote this in. This is an incredibly hard post to share; one I have contemplated about for some time. Looking my nephews murderer in the eye and reading this letter was the hardest and most intimately sad moment of my life. As I sat up on that stand just feet from that monster all I wanted to do was run across that room and do to him what he did to my nephew, there is no feeling like it and I’m so glad that part is over.

I am sharing this with you all because throughout this journey I realized that not a lot of people have shared their victim impact statements and that was something I think would have been a weird sort of comfort to me when I was trying to write mine. So like all of my posts this one is to help others that are going through similar situations, you are not alone, I’ve been there too. Hopefully you can read my letter and feel a sense of comfort and friendship with me, we’re in this together. It doesn’t get easier, time doesn’t heal the wounds when someone is taken from you, not by natural causes but because someone took them. It’s our job as the surviving loved ones to remember them; to spread love around their name; to honor them. I refuse to let my nephew be forgotten and I will spend my life making sure people remember.

I was very hesitant to share this picture but in an effort to stay as raw and unfiltered as possible I thought this candid of me and my mom was the most accurate portrayal of how we felt sitting in court. This was taken and published by a reporter for the Billings Gazette and I only learned of it when I saw it in the news later.

“My name is Brandace Boviall Mata and I am Bentley Troy Boviall’s aunt.

Grant,

I wondered for quite sometime what it was going to be like to come face to face with the man that killed my nephew, the man that could look his own flesh and blood in the face and murder him. You are a sorry excuse for a father, and this is the last time I will ever refer to you as Bentley’s father, you didn’t deserve him. 

Benny has now been gone longer than he was alive and that is so hard to wrap my mind around. The fact that my nephew took his last breaths with you and died with no love around him literally eats at me every single day.

You didn’t just kill a child that was a burden to you and you didn’t just kill Kayla’s son. You killed mine, my husbands, Tosha, and Adam’s nephew. You killed my moms only Grandson. You killed your twin sons little bother. You killed my daughter’s only blood cousin and this infuriates me. 

I fully believe you thought of my sister before you killed her son, you just didn’t care.

Who were you to decide that Bentley’s life didn’t matter, who were you to decide that no one would care if Bentley was gone, who were you to decide that whether Bentley was dead or alive the world would keep spinning? Our worlds haven’t spun since. Who were you to decide that just because you didn’t, no one else loved Benny either? Who were you to decide my nephew’s fate? Who told you that you were so special you got to decide if a human being should live or die. Who do you think you are?

You resented my sister because you wanted her to abort her pregnancy and she didn’t so as a result you resented Benny. You killed him because you never wanted him but NO ONE was making you be a father, Bentley had our last name, if you didn’t want him then you should have just left him and my sister alone. Bentley never needed you; we would have made sure he was taken care of.

My mom, big sister and I were finally going to meet Benny in June. My daughter was finally going to meet her cousin but that didn’t happen because on May 27^thyou decided to take Bentley’s life, strap his dead body into a car seat and visit your girlfriend at work, go buy beers and then wait hours to call 911. It’s almost unbelievable when I say it out loud.

The first time I got to touch my nephew he was stiff, cold, hard and laying in a casket, I want you to remember that. The first time my mom got to hold her only grandson he was dead and I want you to remember that, too.

The jokes on you though because you might have killed Benny but you can never erase him. He is and will forever continue to live on. But you’ll always be known as the man that killed his son, I hope you feel proud of the legacy you left for your other two children, because of you their mother has to explain to them one day that their father is in prison because he murdered their brother. How could you do this to them? Benny was a 6-month-old child, how could you do this to a 6-month-old child. How could you do this to your own child.

I hope that every time you close your eyes you see Bentley; I hope that every time you are about to drift off to sleep his face pops back into your head. I hope that every time you feel like you’re having a good day or are in a good mood my nephews face as you were killing him comes rushing into your head. I hope Bentley haunts you every second of every minute of everyday for the rest of your worthless life. I hope you live a miserable life and die alone with no love around you like you did to my nephew. I hope you feel like the pathetic waste of perfectly good breathing air that you are. I hope you never forget that it should have been you that died on May 27, 2017 and I hope you know that unlike Bentley nobody would have cared that you died. 

How dare you take Benny’s life before he even got to live. How dare you ruin my little sister’s life.

To the Judge:

I want you to know that this man and his actions are not a direct reflection of all the people in Bentley’s life. I want you to know that he was loved more than we could ever explain. Benny was everything to us; he was my baby sisters’ son, it is an unexplainable feeling when your baby sister that you’ve watched grow up gives you a nephew, it was instant love from the moment we found out she was pregnant. Benny was the light of my little sister’s life and he was her best friend. My mom was so proud and so excited to have a grandson, the first boy for our immediate family. Our lives have been completely destroyed from losing Bentley; our family will never be the same. No holiday will ever be the same; December 1^st is now a day of mourning instead of a day of celebration. This man only cares that Bentley is dead because he’s in jail. I can only hope that he gets a life sentence like he gave to us and all our family and friends who loved Bentley Troy Boviall so much. Bentley deserves justice, my little sister deserves justice, our family deserves justice, and the public who has been following my nephews story deserve justice. In making your decision I want you to remember that my little sister had to bury her baby and no parent should ever have to do that. My mom had to bury her grandson and no grandparent should ever have to do that.”

We were lucky given the circumstances, we got a confession from him and then after some months of push back he finally pled guilty so we didn’t have to go through years of a painful trial to get justice. This man was 30 years old at the time of his sentence and on August 24, 2018 he was sentenced to 80 years in prison – A LIFE SENTENCE! #JusticeForBentley was finally served.

May he rest in peace. With Love, BM