Wilson sentenced to ‘time served’

PALMER — A man acquitted of murder was sentenced to time served for his role in the November slaying of a 28-year-old mother in Butte.

Ben Wilson, 31, admitted to shooting and killing Leticia Faller, 28, in the parking lot of a local convenience store in November 2014. But attorneys argued he did it in self-defense after Faller unexpectedly lunged at him through the window of his truck with a knife. A jury eventually acquitted him of all but a single count of coercion, for which he was sentenced Friday morning to a maximum two-year sentence with about 18 months suspended.

The remaining six months were likely covered by the period between his arrest and murder, according to state Department of Corrections formulas, presiding Superior Court Judge Eric Smith told a courtroom filled with Faller’s and Wilson’s relatives.

The circumstances of the case posed unique challenges in crafting an appropriate sentence, Smith said.

“This is a very difficult case,” he said.

Smith said he didn’t immediately understand why the acquittal didn’t cover the coercion counts — among the least of the counts Wilson faced — until he reviewed the testimony. Ultimately, Wilson bore some responsibility for Faller’s presence at the store because of a series of menacing texts Wilson sent to Faller, as well as a video on Wilson’s phone showing a duct-taped Torin Ford identifying drug dealers in Butte.

“Ms. Faller didn’t have to go to the store,” he said. “She engaged in conduct for which there is a legal right to abstain. She was compelled by Mr. Wilson because of the text messages.”

Some aspects of the case remain inexplicable, even months later, Smith said.

For example, it wasn’t clear whether Ford was kidnapped.

“I have no clue what happened to Mr. Ford,” he said. “I’ve been judge a long time, and that was a new one on me. I understand the acquittal, quite frankly. I think the kidnapping was strange. Totally. I have no idea what happened.

“But the fact of the matter is that somebody in Ms. Faller’s position could think that something awful had happened that she had to deal with, and that was the coercion.”

Assistant district attorney Lindsey Burton argued Wilson deserved a two-year maximum sentence because the text messages demonstrated a callous disregard for the consequences of his actions.

“He was the only reason she was at the store that night. If it had not been for him, if it had not been for his act of coercion, she would not have been there, and she would still be alive today,” Burton said.

Wilson also had a habit of getting into confrontations and then blaming others, Burton said, pointing to an earlier case in which Wilson eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of fourth-degree assault after having been charged with third-degree assault, and saw a second-degree murder charge dismissed. That incident involved Wilson ramming two off-road vehicles with his truck after they sprayed his windshield with rocks, authorities said at the time.

Defense attorneys argued for a 90-day sentence, saying Wilson couldn’t have foreseen Faller’s violent reaction, said Jeffrey Bradley.

“It wasn’t a cold, callous thing. His intention was noble,” Bradley said. “He was trying to help. He was acting upon the paranoia that had set in, in her mind, based on this drug use, as a way to get her away from her drug use.”

Deterrence, one of several sentencing criteria the prosecution argued should sway Smith, should not be an issue because the circumstances were unique.

“Lighting doesn’t strike the same spot with that kind of frequency,” he said.

Wilson said the media, including the Frontiersman, had mis-portrayed the case.

“You got things very wrong,” he said. “I can’t ever trust anything I read in the paper again.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Wilson had been convicted of third-degree assault. Wilson was originally charged with third-degree assault, but pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault.