Shannon Michael Benson and Jade Monet Rissell Wiki – Shannon Michael Benson and Jade Monet Rissell Biography
A Minnesota couple who admitted to murdering a pregnant woman and her unborn child before setting the victim’s body on fire inside an abandoned trailer were sentenced to prison this week. Hennepin County District Judge Paul R. Scoggin on Monday handed down separate prison sentences for Shannon. Michael Benson and Jade Monet Rissell for the 2021 murders of Annysa M. Zierhut and her unborn child, whom she planned to name Grace Marie, court documents reviewed by Law & Crime show.
Both Benson and Rissell had previously pleaded guilty to their role in Zierhut’s death. Rissell pleaded guilty last month to one count of second-degree murder without intent and one count of second-degree murder of an unborn child while she was committing a felony. While each charge carried a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, Rissell was sentenced to just over 16 years in prison for each charge, with the sentences to be served concurrently.
Shannon Michael Benson and Jade Monet Rissell Age
Shannon Michael Benson is 42 years old and Jade Monet Rissell is 27 years old.
Shannon Michael Benson and Jade Monet Rissell Incident Detail
In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors dropped charges of aiding a felon after the fact and aiding and abetting a first-degree arson of a home. She was also credited with having served 492 days in jail. Due to state sentencing guidelines, which require an offender to serve the first 2/3 of their prison sentence and the final 1/3 of their sentence on supervised release, Rissell has less than a decade to serve before being released. . two were also ordered to pay more than $5,800 in restitution.
According to court documents, Zierhut’s body was discovered inside a burning trailer at a Minneapolis intersection on November 8, 2021. Zierhut was seven months pregnant and had been reported missing a week earlier. Witnesses told investigators that a woman driving a black Chevrolet Tahoe with the trailer attached had been seen in the area prior to the fire. The vehicles were traced to Benson and his alleged accomplice, Rissell.
Rissell confessed to setting the trailer on fire to cover Zierhut’s body, authorities said. Rissell further admitted that about a week before the fire, she had lured Zierhut via Facebook into her and Benson’s trailer and assaulted her with brass knuckles, knocking her unconscious, police wrote in an affidavit. He said they left Zierhut in the trailer for a few days, then drove the trailer to an intersection to burn it, according to an affidavit.
Shockingly, Rissell also told authorities that Zierhut was in a coma and continued to breathe for three days before finally succumbing to her injuries, according to court documents. Prosecutors say Benson had lured Zierhut into her trailer by offering her drugs After Rissell’s police interview, investigators intentionally left her and Benson in a room while they were recorded.
Rissell told Benson that police “have too much information” and she “told them it was me,” the affidavit says. The two then began to cry. Later, Rissell allegedly asked Benson to pull a bad prank. He replied: “at least it is not a sexual crime”. Rissell said: “I’m going to charge myself with murder. “Me too,” Benson responded, according to the document.
Benson is registered as a predatory sex offender in the state, according to a report in the Star Tribune. He had reportedly been convicted three times in the 1990s for sexual assault and once for assault after beating and threatening to kill his then-wife. Zierhut’s father, Robert Ost, scoffed at what he considered sentences to be “grossly inadequate and pathetic” in an interview with the Star Tribune, reportedly saying that Benson and Rissell should serve life in prison.
“If this is justice, then our system is broken and it has failed Annysa, Grace and all of us. … I know that people who commit these dastardly acts of violence against pregnant women and vulnerable children are generally not very welcome,” Ost told the newspaper. “It seems that even people in prison can understand a code of justice better than our courts will allow.”
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