‘I hate myself for doing this.’ Pocatello man who killed 2, including wife, gets 30 years to life

POCATELLO — A man who killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend in 2021 has been ordered to spend a minimum of 30 years in prison.

Jesse Patrick Leigh, 42, who previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, took responsibility for the murders of Jennifer Leigh and Timothy Hunt during a hearing Thursday. Given the opportunity, he apologized to the families of the two victims.

“I know what I did was wrong. I deserve whatever I get,” he said. “I hate myself for doing this to everybody.”

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Leigh was arrested in the early morning hours of Oct. 16, 2021 after Pocatello police responded to a call reporting a shooting death around 11:30 p.m. the night before. Following a brief search, he was found at the home of his mother and stepfather in possession of a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Officers who responded to the shooting found the victims, both of whom were pronounced dead at the scene, along with several spent 9mm casings. The officers learned that Leigh and Jennifer’s then-seven-year-old son was at the home of the time of the shooting and witnessed the entire incident.

Bannock County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Herzog addressed the fact that the child was present when his father “ambushed” and killed his mother and her friend.

Herzog called Leigh’s actions “deranged.”

Leigh listened, often crying, as the sisters of Jennifer and Hunt provided the court with impact statements.

The first family member to speak was Jennifer’s older sister, who called “Jenn” her “lifetime best friend” since birth. She described her sister as a dedicated mother.

She went on the describe the morning she learned of the murder. She said that she was at work when she noticed, around 6:30 a.m., that she had a message from a friend of Jennifer’s.

“She told me, ‘Jenn’s gone,'” the sister recalled. “At that moment, the whole world stopped for me.”

Since that day, she went on to say, life has been nothing but a “whirlwind of devastation.”

Finally, she said, the murder was not something that happened “in the heat of the moment.” She said that Leigh set up a recording device in the home with the intention of record the murder.

She asked the court to give Leigh the same sentence he has given her entire family — a “lifetime of pain and grief.”

Hunt’s older sister was called to provide a statement next.

She described her younger brother as her “rock.”

“He always was there for people — always,” she said.

She said that Hunt was a devoted uncle from whom she would have to “pry” her children. And her children loved their “Bubba,” whom they had begged for days to see leading up to his murder.

As she recalled, Hunt’s sister was getting her children ready to see their “Bubba” when she got a call from Bannock County. The call was informing her that her brother had been shot and killed.

She said that she hung up not believing what she had been told and tried calling and texting her brother. When she finally did accept the fact, she realized she was now faced with the difficult task of explaining what had happened to her children.

“Now I have to go through every day without my best friend,” she said. “He destroyed my world. He really did.”

However, Hunt’s sister now lives by a credo she learned from her brother — “If you can laugh about it, it’s not that big of a deal.”

Bannock County Chief Public Defender David Martinez spoke on behalf of his client. He admitted that while the defense and prosecution teams have differing opinions on the events that led up to the shooting, there was no arguing that what occurred was a “tragedy.”

Martinez said he met with Leigh mere hours after the shooting and was able to say with certainty that Leigh was sad and repentant about the shooting.

Martinez said Leigh has been treated for psychosis and visual and auditory hallucinations while in jail.

He said he wasn’t telling the court in search of sympathy, he just wanted all in attendance to know that Leigh feels a great deal of sorrow for what he has done.

Leigh, who said during a pre-sentence investigation that he “deserves to go to prison,” according to Herzog, offered his own firsthand apology before adding, “I miss Jenn. I miss my family.”

District Judge Robert Naftz spoke briefly before issuing sentence.

The prison sentence, he explained, had been agreed upon by the defense and prosecution during mediation before District Judge Stephen Dunn. However, financial decisions were left to him.

Naftz said that he would waive all fines and attorney costs, because, as he explained, every dollar he has should go to the care of his child.

“You left a son without parents,” Naftz said to Leigh, adding that the boy is “a victim in so many ways.”

Naftz said that whether or not to issue a no-contact order was also something he was left to consider.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have the right to have contact with him,” Naftz said.

Leigh was visibly affected by those words, dropping his head crying.

But, that decision was left to the boy’s caretakers. Naftz explained that he had no way of knowing what the child would want tomorrow or years from now, so he did not want to make a ruling in that regard.

Naftz accepted the mediated sentence of two separate prison terms of 30 years fixed, life indeterminate — to be served concurrently. Leigh was remanded to the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction following the hearing.