Robert Benner

A former Powell resident has been ordered to serve up to 40 years in prison for two unrelated sex crimes in Nevada.

Appearing in a Reno courtroom last month, 21-year-old Robert A. Benner pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual assault and received as much as 480 months worth of prison time.

The felony crimes related to unwanted sexual contact that Benner had with two separate victims: a 16-year-old girl in 2021 and a 20-year-old woman in 2022.

“In both situations, the women told Benner repeatedly to stop, however the defendant ignored the victims,” the Washoe County, Nevada, District Attorney’s Office said in a June news release.

At the time of the offenses in Reno, Benner was on supervised probation for blackmailing a 17-year-old girl in Cody in the summer of 2020. In that Park County case, the then-19-year-old Benner was reported to have threatened to share unflattering videos of the girl if she didn’t hang out with him. When they did get together, Benner allegedly battered her: putting her in a loose chokehold, pulling her hair and hitting her legs, charging documents say.

Benner pleaded guilty to a felony count of blackmail in exchange for several other charges being dismissed. He served about two-and-a-half months in jail before being released in December 2020 to serve three years of supervised probation in Nevada.

“I feel if I get to go down there, working’s going to keep me out of trouble,” Benner said at his sentencing hearing.

District Court Judge Bill Simpson warned the defendant that if he didn’t “step away from this kind of behavior … you’ll be back in this situation again.

“And next time you might not be so fortunate,” Simpson said, “[it] could be a prison term.”

Benner made it less than a year-and-a-half on probation before getting into more trouble.

In April 2022, Reno police received a report that Benner had committed a sex crime against a former girlfriend, the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office says. The teen reported that back in August 2021, when she was 16, Benner had threatened and coerced her into having sex. A few minutes into that sexual encounter, the girl said she told Benner to stop, but he “instead began to sexually assault her, holding her neck during the attack to keep her from leaving,” the DA’s office recounted in its news release.

Another ex-girlfriend reported being sexually assaulted by Benner the following month. The 20-year-old woman told Reno police that, in May 2022, Benner began drinking heavily while they were hanging out.

“After helping Benner to bed, the victim said he blocked her from leaving the room, ripped at her clothing, and raped her while pinning her down,” Washoe County prosecutors said in their release. Prosecutors filed charges on May 31, 2022, and Benner has remained in custody since then.

The District Attorney’s Office initially charged Benner with two counts of sexual assault, but as part of a plea deal that had the support of the victims, amended the charges to attempted sexual assault.

However, prosecutors argued for Benner to receive the maximum sentence, “due to the nature of the offenses and lifelong impact his conduct will have on both victims,” the Washoe County DA’s release said.

At a June 8 hearing, Second Judicial District Court Judge Lynne Simons ordered Benner to serve two 240-month sentences for the two crimes, with credit for the roughly year in jail that he’d already served. According to the judge’s order, Benner must serve at least 192 months — or 16 years — before becoming eligible for parole.

Even after he completes that sentence, Benner could face more trouble in Park County, as county prosecutors filed notice last week that they’re seeking to revoke his probation on the blackmail conviction. Benner’s probation had been transferred to Nevada, but because he was convicted of a new felony crime, interstate compact rules allow Nevada to make Wyoming take him back.

If a Park County judge finds that Benner violated the terms of his probation, he could theoretically be ordered to serve two to four years in a Wyoming prison on top of his Nevada sentence.