A Montana man who fatally shot his wife and a bartender in a jealous rage will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Kraig Walter Benson was sentenced Friday to 140 years in prison for the August 2023 slaying of his wife Jenny, 49, and bartender Logan Gardner, 43, at the Four Acres Bar in Superior.
He received 60 years for each count of deliberate homicide, as well as an additional 10 years for using a weapon in a violent crime, KRTV reports.
Benson was found guilty of the homicides in October, after video surveillance of the dive bar showed him and his wife sitting at a table together, when he suddenly gets up to smoke a cigarette outside, according to Law & Crime.
He could then be seen taking a gun from his wife’s Chevy Tahoe and returning to the bar, where Jenny is sitting on a stool by the bar as Gardner is bartending.
Benson then pulls the gun from his waistband and shoots Jenny in the head, causing her to fall onto the ground as he extends the firearm over the bar to Gardner, who tries to flee the scene.
At that point, the footage shows Benson shooting his wife a second time as she lies on the floor and Gardner three more times, even though he is already lying on the floor near the entrance to the bar.
Benson then fled the scene in his wife’s car, and Gardner was later pronounced dead at the scene, with Jenny dying a short time later at a local hospital.
Kraig Walter Benson was sentenced Friday to 140 years in prison
He was caught on camera firing a weapon at his wife, Jenny, 49, and bartender Logan Gardner, 43, at the Four Acres Bar in Superior
The suspect was ultimately located the following day, when he continued to drive his wife’s Tahoe with a flat tire on a Missoula County highway.
Following his arrest, Benson repeatedly argued his wife was being unfaithful – and claimed he had no memory of the shooting.
During cross examination at his trial, Kraig testified that his wife ‘told me that she was not going to go home with me, that she was going to go home with Logan.
‘I went outside and I’m pretty sure that’s why I went outside… and was going back into the bar and having the last conversation.’
Prior to sentencing Friday, Benson also claimed he ‘too lost my best friend that night… the love of my life’ and admitted ‘having no memory is no excuse.’
But he also continued to place the blame on his late wife.
‘At trial, the state made Jenny seem like an angel, a person with no flaws – they were wrong,’ Benson argued, according to NBC Montana.
‘Since my arrest, through the discovery process, it shows another side of my wife of 22 years.’
Agent Ward, of the Division of Criminal Investigation, even testified during the trial that Benson made phone calls from jail mentioning that he wanted to take a paternity test for his two daughters he shared with Jenny.
Benson was arrested the following day, when he drove his wife’s Tahoe with a flat tire on a Missoula County highway
One of his daughters, Paige, then called her father ‘narcissistic’ in a victim impact statement during his sentencing hearing as she spoke lovingly about her late mother.
She and her sister went on to say they do not feel safe with Benson in the world
Jenny’s father, Terry Savage, meanwhile, teared up in court as he said, ‘Jenny was my only daughter, the joy of my life, my best friend.’
He added that he hopes Benson has a ‘miserable’ life in prison.
Others also called Benson a ‘monster,’ with some claiming they still have post traumatic stress from the grisly double murder.
He will now serve his sentence at the Montana State Prison.
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