The 59-year-old Chattanooga resident charged with fatally shooting two women in a waiting room at Erlanger at Hutcheson hospital entered a plea of not guilty last week in Walker County Superior Court.
Authorities claim James Benson shot his estranged wife, Mary Sue Benson, 56, and her mother, Charlotte Johnson, 77, in the hospital’s intensive care waiting room on the night of Jan. 6.
Herbert “Buzz” Franklin, district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, declared in court March 14 his office will not be seeking the death penalty in the case.
Benson is charged with two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
During Benson’s arraignment last week, his court-appointed attorney, Jad Johnson of the public defender’s office, entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.