Idaho man kills himself before sentencing for child molestation

Apparently despondent over his upcoming sentencing for a felony child molestation charge, Benjamin N. Wright killed himself with a handgun at home last week, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

Wright, 26, was discovered Thursday afternoon by his mother in their Athol, Idaho, home, according to Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

“There was nothing suspicious,” Wolfinger said. “It was a simple, straightforward suicide.”

Wright was charged with rape in the Sept. 11, 2004, sexual assault of a 22-month-old girl in Coeur d’Alene. He originally pleaded not guilty to the rape charge last fall.

He spent more than three months in jail after a magistrate judge set bail at $100,000, but was released after securing a bail bond in December.

In April, after the charge was amended to lewd conduct with a child under 16, Wright pleaded guilty. His sentencing was scheduled for this Friday, and he faced up to life in prison for the crime.

Police arrested Wright after being alerted by the staff at Kootenai Medical Center.

The victim’s mother had noticed blood on the child’s diaper, and when she asked Wright about it, he suggested it could be a bladder infection and suggested that she feed the child cranberry juice, according to previous reports.

Instead the mother took the child to KMC, where doctors performed immediate surgery on the victim and alerted police to the girl’s injuries.

Wright later was arrested at Sacred Heart Medical Center’s psychiatric ward, where his parents had taken him. Wright’s attorney told Judge Penny Friedlander at a court hearing last fall that Wright’s parents took him to Sacred Heart so he wouldn’t be in the same hospital as the victim.