POCATELLO — The 41-year-old local man who fatally shot his estranged wife and her boyfriend in October 2021 will spend at least the next 30 years in prison following a Thursday sentencing hearing at the Bannock County Courthouse.

Jesse Patrick Leigh, of Pocatello, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of felony second-degree murder for firing the fatal shots that killed his estranged wife, Jennifer, 41, and her boyfriend Timothy Hunt, 21, both of Pocatello, at the Leigh family home on the 4200 block of Philbin Road on the evening of Oct. 15, 2021.

Leigh agreed to plead guilty to two second-degree murder charges after reaching a plea agreement with Bannock County prosecutors.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Bannock County prosecutors agreed to dismiss an enhancement Leigh faced for using a weapon during the commission of a felony crime and one felony count of unlawfully discharging a firearm at an occupied home. Prosecutors had already elected not to pursue the death penalty against Leigh.

The plea agreement was binding, which required the presiding judge, Robert C. Naftz, to either accept the agreement as authored or reject the agreement, allow Leigh to withdraw his guilty pleas and proceed to take the case to trial. The binding plea agreement called for Naftz to impose a unified lifetime prison against Legih, of which Leigh must serve at least 30 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.

Sisters of both Jennifer and Hunt provided the court with victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing Thursday.

Rebecca Hoadley, Jennifer’s older sister, said that since losing her beloved sibling her world “has been nothing but a whirlwind of devastation.”

“The sentence he received will never be enough time,” she told the Idaho State Journal following the hearing. “We all miss her so very much and there will never be enough time that he can serve to make this right, never.”

Leana Hunt, Timothy Hunt’s sister, said her brother was excited to become an uncle to her children, describing her brother as the kindest person you could ever meet,

“He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,” she said.

Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog described Leigh’s actions as “absolutely horrible in its own right.”

“These murders occurred in the presence of the defendant’s young son,” Herzog said. “The boy was a witness to his father murdering his own mother. There are really no words that adequately describe that sort of deranged conduct.”

Herzog said the plea agreement reached with Leigh was done in part to prevent Leigh’s young son from being forced to relive the traumatic event while testifying on the stand. Herzog requested that Naftz impose a no-contact order between Leigh and his son, though Naftz declined to do so, saying that it was up to the discretion of the new guardians for the young boy to decide whether he should ever have a relationship with his father, who will be incarcerated for the rest of the boy’s adolescent life.

Leigh’s court-appointed attorney, Bannock County Public Defender Dave Martinez, described this incident as a tragedy, not just for the family of the victims but for his client as well.

“I was with Jesse within hours of him being arrested, so I saw the devastation that this has had on him,” Martinez said. “Jesse has never done anything but express sorrow for what happened.”

Pocatello police responded to the Leigh family home on Philbin Road on Oct. 15, 2021, and located both Jennifer and Timothy Hunt dead from apparent gunshot wounds. Jennifer was located in the master bedroom on the northeast end of the home with a single gunshot wound to the left side of her head, according to the affidavits. Timothy Hunt was located at the threshold of the front door on the north end of the residence with multiple gunshot wounds, “particularly two in his chest, one in his back, one in his right arm and two in his left arm,” according to documents the Idaho State Journal obtained in 2021.

Police learned about the shooting after Leigh’s neighbors heard the gunshots and called 911. Leigh left the scene and went to his mother’s home in Chubbuck before police arrived.

Both Leigh’s mother and step-father told police detectives that Leigh admitted to them that he had shot Jennifer and Timothy Hunt, records show.

Officers from the Chubbuck Police Department located Leigh at his mother’s home on the 4600 block of Tahoe Place near Cotant Park in Chubbuck around 1:40 a.m., about two hours after the shooting, police told the Journal in 2021. Officers found Leigh asleep next to a Girsan Regard MC 9mm semiautomatic pistol, records show.

Police told the Journal shortly after the shooting that Leigh and Jennifer’s 7-year-old son was inside the mobile home during the incident. The Journal would later learn at Leigh’s preliminary hearing that the boy witnessed the fatal encounter.

A digital recording device hidden inside of a heating vent was also discovered by Jennifer’s family members after the incident and prosecutors would learn the device was active leading up to the shooting and while the fatal shots were fired.

Leigh also addressed the court briefly during the sentencing hearing Thursday.

“I’m so sorry,” Leigh said. “I’m so sorry and I never wanted any of this to ever happen. Jen was my best friend for so long. I miss her every day. I know what I did was wrong and I’m so sorry. I hate myself for doing this to everybody. I miss Jen, I miss my family and I don’t really know what else to say.”