Update — sentencing in a double homicide

I’ve written previously about a double homicide in Helena in which Michelle Coller Gable  broke into her estranged husband Joe Gable’s apartment and shot and killed him and his new girlfriend, Sunday Cooley Bennett, days after he unsuccessfully sought a restraining order against her and filed for divorce. Michelle Gable claimed self-defense. A jury convicted her in January of two counts of deliberate homicide. The Helena Independent Record reports that she’s now been sentenced to 100 years on each count, making her eligible for parole in 50 years. At 49, she’s unlikely to be released, absent a reversal or other unusual circumstance. Judge Kathy Seeley made some interesting remarks about Gable’s pattern of denying responsibility and use of emotion to manipulate others.

If you’re writing about homicide in domestic cases, or about what judges consider in sentencing, this sad case is worth a look.