Anna Benson pleaded guilty Tuesday to attacking her estranged husband, former major league pitcher Kris Benson in July.
Anna Benson, 37, was sentenced to 15 years probation in a three-pronged set of conditions that could cut five years from her penalty.
In exchange for her guilty plea to aggravated assault and gun possession in a bizarre attack at Kris Benson's home and submitting to three months of inpatient psychiatric therapy, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a burglary charge and additional aggravated assault charges.
Anna Benson reluctantly accepted the plea agreement Tuesday in Cobb County Superior Court.
“Are you in fact guilty?” Cobb Superior Court Judge C. LaTain Kell, Sr. asked her.
Bespectacled and dressed in a navy blue prison jumpsuit, Anna Benson, a star of the VH-1 reality series, “Baseball Wives,” cocked her head to the left and exhaled loudly before responding.
“Yes,” she said.
Prosecutors said Anna Benson wore a bulletproof vest, a loaded ammunition belt and a large knife tucked in her waistband on July 7 when she barged into her husband’s house, brandishing a metal rod and a hunting gun called a “Judge.”
She demanded $30,000 and smashed a computer inside the house during her rampage, prosecutors said.
Officers arrived at the 1160 block of Drewsbury Court to find Benson smoking a cigarette in the backyard while Kris Benson hid at a neighbor’s residence, authorities said.
She was arrested the night of the incident and has been held at the Cobb County jail ever since.
As part of the terms of the plea deal, Anna Benson must successfully complete a 90-day psychiatric treatment program at an undisclosed, out-of-state facility.
Treatment can range from anger and violence management to substance abuse and post traumatic stress disorder therapy, said her attorney Ashleigh Merchant.
“Whatever they determine she needs,” Merchant said.
If she completes the program and can go five years without committing a felony or violating probation conditions prohibiting her from coming within 500 yards of her husband or threatening him and their children, the second five years of probation will be unsupervised.
After 10 years, if she remains compliant, the final five years will be dismissed.
Assistant Cobb County District Attorney Don Geary said Kris Benson didn’t wholly agree with the plea deal.
“He asks the court not to accept the plea,” Geary told Kell. “Ultimately, he wants safety for himself and his children and has great concern about the children and the affect that the defendant’s behavior has on them.”
Kris Benson filed for divorce from his wife in March 2012 in Forsyth County, where the couple previously lived, records show. Their divorce has not yet been finalized. The couple has three children together.
On May 30, Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley issued an order for Anna Benson to vacate the Smyrna home by June 3.
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