Ex-UCI student gets life sentence for killing ex-wife

A former UC Irvine graduate student was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for murdering his ex-wife on campus after a child-support dispute.

Judge William Froeberg also ordered Brian Hughes Benedict to pay almost $200,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.

An Orange County Superior Court jury last month found Benedict, 40, guilty of the 2009 slaying.

Prosecutors accused Benedict of waiting for Rebecca Clarke, 30, in his campus apartment and attacking her with a hammer. When she fled, he chased her and shot her in the face.

During the trial, two witnesses testified that they stopped Benedict from fleeing with the couple’s son.

“When an act is so horrific, so evil and heinous, you don’t want to dwell on it,” the victim’s mother, Sally Clarke, told the court before the sentencing.

She said relatives are now raising the couple’s son, who was 4 at the time of the murder.

“He cannot remember what his mother looks like, but he can remember her hair,” Sally Clarke said.

At trial, prosecutors said Benedict was upset that a judge had limited his visitation rights and ordered him to pay hundreds of dollars more in child support than he thought he owed.

Before the killing, Benedict wrote a will asking his family to take custody of the couple’s son.

Benedict’s public defender argued that Benedict was depressed because of the family court ruling and intended to kill himself, not his ex-wife.

The jury convicted Benedict of one felony count of murder with special circumstances of financial gain and lying in wait, with a sentencing enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death.

Froeberg said he was frustrated he couldn’t do more for the victim’s family.

“I wish there was something I could do to restore your daughter and your sister to you,” he said.

Rebecca Clarke’s brother Stephen brought a picture of his sister and her son to court.

He said he and relatives hope they can eventually forgive Benedict.

“But we’re not at that point yet,” Stephen Clarke said. “Maybe someday we will.”