John Jefferson
Insets, clockwise from top left: Jenny Benson (GoFundMe), Logan Gardner (GoFundMe), and Kraig Benson (Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The bar where the shooting occurred (KECI).
A Montana man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his wife and a bartender who he suspected were having an affair.
Kraig Walter Benson was sentenced to 140 years in prison on Friday for the deaths of his wife, Jenny Benson, 49, and bartender Logan Gardner, 43. He was found guilty in October 2024 of two counts of deliberate homicide.
Jenny Benson’s father told the killer directly that he hoped he leads a miserable life in prison, while the defendant’s daughter said she didn’t feel safe with her father in the world.
The defendant’s sister Kris Norton also spoke out, local NBC affiliate KECI reported.
“Kraig is not just my brother but someone I deeply admire,” she said. “His actions in this matter do not reflect who he is. It breaks my heart to see my nieces lose their mother to this tragedy. What breaks my heart even more is the anger that has divided our family and friends to live in anger is a life sentence.”
The defendant shot and killed his wife and Gardner at the Four Aces Bar in Superior, Montana, on Aug. 27, 2023.
An affidavit obtained by KECI outlining the case said surveillance video from the bar and a neighboring business captured it all.
The footage showed the Bensons at a table inside. At one point, Kraig Benson went outside, smoked a cigarette, grabbed a gun from his wife’s Chevrolet Tahoe, and returned to the bar.
At 9:19 p.m., the time-stamped video shows him returning to the table with his wife in the middle of the bar. He reaches into his waistband, pulls out the gun and shoots her in the head as patrons run for the doors. She falls from her bar stool onto the floor, and he extends the firearm over the bar toward the bartender and fires at the bartender as he retreats toward the front door.
Benson fires again at his wife once more as she lies on the floor and then fires at the bartender, shooting him three more times as he lies on the floor near the entrance.
The killer then sets the firearm on the bar and leaves in the Tahoe. He was quickly arrested after the Tahoe was seen with a flat tire driving erratically on a highway in Missoula County.
At his trial, he testified in his own defense.
“She told me that she was not going to go home with me, that she was going to go home with Logan,” Benson said during cross-examination, local affiliate KULR reported. “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.”
At his sentencing, he apologized, KECI reported.
“To my friends and family, thank you for your support,” he said. “To my children, I love you more than life itself,” he said while crying on the stand.
“I, too, lost my best friend that night, my best friend and the love of my life,” the defendant went on.
Jenny Benson was remembered as a loving and caring mother. In her career, she owned a horse stable and ranch and worked as a self-employed commercial real estate appraiser.
“Jenny took great pride in raising her daughters, Paige Benson and Tailor Benson,” her obituary said. “She also had a special place in her heart for her dogs and horses.”
A joint GoFundMe page for the victims said Gardner could make friends with almost anyone.
“He greeted everyone he knew with his big warm smile or like some would say ‘s—-eating grin,” the page said. “He could make anyone’s day with his big-warm embrace and was always gentle and kind. A great listener and friend, he would do anything for almost anyone without question and help a friend whenever he could.”
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