A bizarre case involving a cookie business, a prized 18th Century viola and a Chicago woman who participated in a murder-for-hire plot to kill a boyfriend whom she later married came to an end Wednesday with a federal judge sentencing her to a 2-year prison term.
Quinntella Benson, 35, who pleaded guilty to her involvement in the crime last summer, will be given credit for 3 months she has already served.
“This is certainly a difficult case,” said U.S. District Court Judge William T. Hart, saying he had to balance a number of factors.
Among them was the fact that a target of the murder plot, Boisie Watson, who was Benson’s abusive boyfriend at the time the scheme was developed, is now her husband. Watson helped bail her out of jail, and two months ago they had a baby daughter, her lawyer said.
Watson was in the courtroom Wednesday, listening to the arguments. After the hearing, he refused to comment as he cradled the baby in his arms.
The case revolves around a plot conjured up by Benson and her former lover, Robert Heiss of Chicago. Facing escalating financial difficulties, Heiss, who is in his 70s, hired an undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man to murder his partner in a cookie business and torch buildings he owned so he could collect insurance.
Benson was accused of plotting with Heiss and the same hit man to have Watson killed.
Heiss entered the public spotlight in June 1998 when he was arrested after attempting to sell an 18th Century viola that had disappeared two years earlier. Owned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the instrument had been accidentally left on a downtown Chicago sidewalk.
That charge against Heiss was later dismissed.
Heiss has said he found the viola on the street, but Watson has testified that he bought it at the Maxwell Street Market shortly after its disappearance.
Two years later, it turned up missing from the home he shared with Benson. Days later, Heiss tried to sell the viola to a Lincolnwood expert, but the man tipped off authorities.
After Heiss’ arrest was publicized, Watson accused Benson of stealing the instrument from him and began questioning her relationship with Heiss.
It was then that Heiss and Benson, who had a longtime affair, hired a hit man, authorities said.
Heiss pleaded guilty in September, a week after Benson admitted her guilt and agreed to testify against him. In December, he was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison and fined $10,000.
Arguing for a reduced sentence, Benson’s attorney, Keith Spielfogel, said his client suffered from battered women’s syndrome.
