No charges for students who beat Nex Benedict the day before he died

On Thursday, the Tulsa County district attorney said that prosecutors would not bring charges related to the death of Nex Benedict.  

The 16-year-old died last month, one day after being involved in a violent altercation with three other students in a bathroom at Owasso High School in Owasso, Oklahoma. Benedict reportedly told his mother, Sue Benedict, that he had been bullied by the three other students because of his gender identity. (While most mainstream media outlets continue to refer to Benedict as nonbinary, friends told NBC News’ Jo Yurcaba that Benedict was trans and preferred he/him pronouns.) He also told a school resource officer that during the fight, the three students beat him until he “blacked out.”

Related:

Owasso school board blasted for “spitting on grave” of Nex Benedict by ignoring bullying

A state legislator recently referred to Benedict and other LGBTQ+ teens as “filth.”

Benedict’s death led to widespread outcry from the LGBTQ+ community and allies, as well as speculation that his death was a direct result of injuries he sustained during the incident in the Owasso High School bathroom. But last week, a summary of the state medical examiner’s report was made public, listing Benedict’s probable cause of death as a likely suicide from the “combined toxicity” of two medications: the anti-histamine diphenhydramine and the anti-depressant fluoxetine. The full medical examiner’s report is set to be released on March 27.

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In a Thursday press release, Tulsa County DA Stephen Kunzweiler said that he agreed with the Owasso Police Department’s assessment, based on a weekslong investigation, “that the filing of juvenile charges is not warranted.” He described the “fight” between Benedict and the three other students as “an instance of mutual combat.”  

“I do not have a reasonable belief that the State of Oklahoma could sustain its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt if charges were presented for prosecution,” Kunzweiler said.

According to the New York Times, Kunzweiler’s statement described how the students involved in the “fight” had not seemed to know each other prior to being placed in in-school suspension together — a detail that echoes what Benedict told a school resource officer — but had started “antagonizing each other in the days leading up to the fight.”

Kunzweiler also revealed that the OPD had discovered “some brief notes, written by Benedict, which appeared to be related to the suicide.”

“Although the notes do not make any reference to the earlier fight or difficulties at school, the parents indicated that Benedict reported being picked upon for various reasons while at school,” he wrote, according to the New York Times.

Last week, Benedict’s family issued a statement via their attorney pointing to details left out of the initial summary of the Oklahoma state medical examiner’s report, indicating the severity of the injuries Benedict sustained in the “fight.”

“As the media and public await the release of the full report, the Benedicts want to ensure other pertinent portions of the report are not overshadowed by the ‘classification’ of Nex’s death,” the statement read. “Rather than allow incomplete accounts to take hold and spread any further, the Benedicts feel compelled to provide a summary of those findings which have not yet been released by the Medical Examiner’s office, particularly those that contradict allegations of the assault on Nex being insignificant.”

The Benedicts’ attorney told multiple media outlets Thursday that the family would not comment on the Tulsa DA’s decision not to bring charges in the case.

Meanwhile, two toxicology experts told The Advocate last week that the two medications reportedly found in Benedict’s system “pose a low risk of dangerous interactions.”

In a statement Thursday, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called for an independent investigation to determine “the truth about what happened to Nex, and what all marginalized youth in Oklahoma schools endure.” She described the Oklahoma state Medical Examiner’s Office as “unaccredited” — it lost its accreditation with the National Association of Medical Examiners in 2009 — and blasted Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ+ Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, Owasso High School, the Owasso Police Department, and the Tulsa DA for “failing” Benedict.

“Time and time again, leaders in Oklahoma have showed that they don’t value Nex’s life, or the lives of other Indigenous and 2STGNC+ (Two Spirit, transgender, gender-noncoforming+) students,” Ellis said.

Walters, in particular, has come under intense scrutiny in the weeks since Benedict’s death, with LGBTQ+ rights advocates accusing him of fostering an environment of anti-LGBTQ+ hostility in Oklahoma schools. On Thursday, the Human Rights Campaign, which has called for an investigation of Walters along with the Oklahoma State Department of Education, released the results of a poll that found that a majority (52 percent) of Oklahoma voters want to see Walters removed from office.  

Walter already faced widespread criticism from both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers this year for appointing New York-based hate influencer and former real estate agent Chaya Raichik, who operates the anti-LGBTQ+ social media account Libs of TikTok, to Oklahoma’s library advisory committee in January. In the wake of Benedict’s death, multiple LGBTQ+ advocacy and civil rights organizations have called for Walters’ ouster.