Jury finds Craig Ingersoll guilty of Jennifer Bennett's death
-->By: Jennifer Lee
Updated: November 13, 2012
The man accused of killing Jennifer Bennett back in 2007, has been found guilty in Oneida County Court Tuesday.
After days of witness testimony and hearing from the prosecution and defense, the jury has found 30-year-old Craig Ingersoll guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree and guilty of murder in the 2nd degree.
It took the jury a little over an hour to deliberate and come back with a verdict.
And when that verdict was read, Jennifer Bennett's mother said it was a burden lifted off her shoulders.
After five years since her daughter's gruesome death, Denise Saunders says she never lost hope or never gave up on investigators trying to find the person who killed her daughter.
"He's going to pay for what he did. That's all you can ask for. Justice was served. He got convicted and he was definitely guilty," said Saunders.
The jury found Ingersoll guilty of forcibly having sex with Jennifer and strangling her to death.
But, the defense says there was a lack of evidence saying it could have been anyone of her "pimps" or "johns" responsible for Jennifer's death.
Investigators say she worked as a prostitute to support her drug addiction.
As for the taped interview between Ingersoll and investigators of Ingersoll admitting to having sex with Jennifer, the defense says, "When this incident occurred he didn't know what happened. In the closing you heard he did not know what happened. He looked down. He didn't know why she was unconscious and he pulled her from the vehicle. It wasn't until he was provided facts from the investigators at least that was my argument was based on that he gave a story that went along what they were telling him," said Defense Attorney, Luke Nebush.
Ingersoll faces up to 25 years to life. As for Jennifer's family, her mother says they can finally have some closure.
"He took my beautiful daughter away. He took the chances of her children having their mother. They were looking forward to their mother getting straighten up and coming back. That's all they want," said Saunders.
Ingersoll is scheduled to be sentenced on January 22nd. That's also when Jennifer Bennett's family will be able to read victim impact statements.
