Gladstone murder-for-hire case finally resolved

GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) – Nearly six years after Debbie Higbee-Benton was killed in her Gladstone hair salon, all three people involved in the murder-for-hire plot have been sentenced to prison.

On Friday, 59-year-old Susan Ellen Campbell pleaded guilty to aggravated murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Earlier in the week, her son, 36-year-old Jason Jaynes, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Higbee-Benton’s murder.

KPTV reports that a jury convicted Lynn Benton last October on charges of aggravated murder and criminal conspiracy for the death of his estranged wife.

Higbee-Benton was found dead in her Gladstone hair salon in 2011. Prosecutors said she was shot, beaten and strangled.

Detectives say Benton, a former Gladstone police sergeant, hired the mother-son duo of Campbell and Jaynes to kill Higbee-Benton for $2,000.