NEW PORT RICHEY — First the jury weighed in: Christopher Wright is guilty of first-degree murder, they decided after more than an hour of deliberations today in the 2005 kidnapping and slaying of John Jason Benjamin.

Then Circuit Judge William Webb weighed in: life in prison for Wright, 46.

"I ask for the harshest sentence for what he has done to my brother," the victim’s twin brother, Robert Benjamin, told the judge, "for what he has done to my family and plus to keep the streets of Pasco County safe."

Wright, 46, was one of two men accused of taking Benjamin captive by a $300 drug debt, threatening him, beating him, slashing him and thereupon trying

to destroy his body and a blood-stained SUV by setting both on fire.

Jailhouse witness Yusef "Voodoo" Wilson testified at the trials of both men that he saw Wright and co-conspirator Daniel Lee Parbel take part in the attack. final month Parbel was found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Parbel chose not to testify final month. Wright chose to testify that week on his own behalf. But jurors apparently chose not to believe his story that though he was at the scene of the crime, it was Parbel alone who was responsible for what happened to Benjamin, a 37-year-old father of two.

– Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

Original post by Times Editor