A man convicted last year of the 2023 murders of his wife and their friend at a Superior bar has been sentenced to 140 years in the Montana State prison.

Kraig W. Benson, 48, was convicted in October of two counts of deliberate homicide at the end of a weeklong jury trial in October. He admitted to killing his wife , 49-year-old Jenny Benson, and Logan Gardner, 43, at the Four Aces Bar on Aug. 27, 2023.

Mineral County District Judge Leslie Halligan pronounced the sentence on Jan. 3. She also ordered Benson to pay about $30,000 in restitution to Logan Gardner’s brother, Cody Gardner, according to court records.

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Kraig W. Benson enters the courtroom at the Ravalli County Courthouse on Monday, Oct. 21 in Hamilton.

Benson was given two consecutive sentences — 60 years for each count of deliberate homicide, plus a 10-year weapons enhancement on each count.

State prosecutors from the Department of Justice had requested that Halligan impose the maximum sentence of 100 years in prison, plus the 10-year enhancement, for each charge. The state’s sentencing recommendation had requested no time suspended, and asked for about $90,000 in restitution for Gardner’s brother.

The minimum sentence for deliberate homicide in Montana is 10 years in prison.

Benson’s defense attorneys had requested a total of 50 years for the two homicides. The defendant’s sentencing memo noted he had almost no criminal history and continued an argument the defense had made during Benson’s trial, that it was “a crime of passion.”

They cited witness statements that a growing argument between the couple had led up to the shooting, and that both were drunk at the time. Gardner, who was bartending that night, was a lifelong friend of Jenny Benson’s and the defense focused much of its case on evidence that the two had been having an affair.

“Kraig’s actions were the result of suddenly and harshly being confronted with the end of his marriage and rejection by the love of his life,” defense attorney Nick Brooke wrote in the sentencing memo. “... Kraig is not a monster who is bent on killing indiscriminately or taking vengeance on those who betray him.”

With surveillance footage from the Four Aces Bar clearly showing Benson shooting the two victims multiple times with a handgun, Benson's defense attorneys had sought at trial to obtain convictions on a lesser charge, mitigated deliberate homicide.

State prosecutors, however, succeeded in convincing the jury that even if there had been an affair — an allegation that was never definitively proved — his mental state didn't amount to the "extreme mental or emotional stress" that Montana law requires for a finding of mitigated homicide.

Halligan also ordered Benson to not have contact with Cody Gardner or either of his and Jenny Benson’s two daughters. All three provided victim impact statements during the sentencing, according to court records.

Benson will be eligible for parole in 35 years.

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