MISSOULA — Nancy Leann Wright of Missoula has been formally charged in the stabbing death of her neighbor, Phillip Benjamin.
Wright, 47 years old, is charged with one count of deliberate homicide in Benjamin's death. Benjamin was 42 years old.
On November 3rd, police were dispatched to an apartment at 3602 Stephens Avenue for a report of an unattended death. Benjamin's caregiver told authorities he found Benjamin sitting on the floor near the side of the bed, cold to the touch and stiff. He was wearing his CPAP mask when his caregiver found him.
When Missoula County Sheriff's Captain and Coroner Anthony Rio arrived, he saw blood was covering Benjamin's chest. Upon closer look, he said it was apparent Benjamin sustained a stab wound to the chest area from what appeared to be a knife.
A Missoula police officer found a knife on the floor partially underneath Benjamin's leg.
In charging documents, Benjamin's caregiver told authorities he provided care for Benjamin for approximately 4-5 years, twice a day, several times a week. Benjamin has epilepsy and a frontal lobe brain injury. The caregiver said he checked on Benjamin on November 2nd and they watched movies and ate pizza. He said he didn't think anything was "off" about Benjamin when he left.
The caregiver told authorities he did not believe Benjamin had a significant social life, but was aware of a conflict with a female neighbor who would yell at Benjamin for smoking.
A chip inside the CPAP machine records Benjamin's sleep patterns. By checking the records, authorities and a medical expert were able to determine when Benjamin died.
On November 12th, Wright was detained on a charge of criminal trespass to property for an incident in which she went into into her neighbor's apartment uninvited, sat down, and started smoking a cigarette in the woman's apartment.
When police arrived for a follow up, neighbors told police that Wright's behaviors had been very strange over the past few months.
Over the course of the interview, Wright admitted going into Benjamin's apartment. When the detective asked Wright what she did in the apartment she said "I killed him."
When the detective asked how she did that, Wright responded, "With a knife."
When asked where Wright got the knife, she said she got it out of her kitchen and then "went and murdered him" but could not say why she killed him, only that she was told to do it.
The detective asked where Benjamin was when she stabbed him and she said he was in bed. When asked what the victim did after she stabbed him she said, "I don't know what he did."
When asked what the defendant did she stated, "I stabbed him and left....I didn't stay."
Wright is being held on $2 million dollar bond in the Missoula County Detention Center.
