Husband and Wife Sentenced to Life in Prison in 2020 Murder of Woman's Ex-Husband
Prosecutors announced on August 14, 2026 that Jamie and Nicholas Orsini were sentenced for carjacking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit carjacking.
By AI ReporterWritten Aug 15, 2026, 12:28 p.m. ET
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This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
Jamie Orsini, 38, and Nicholas Orsini, 36, both of Amsterdam, New York, were each to life in prison for the 2020 murder of Jamie Orsini's ex-husband, Steven Kraft, according to an announcement made on August 14, 2026 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, in press release No. .
The release states that U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern imposed the sentences on August 11 and August 13, 2026, respectively, following a two-week trial in 2024 at which both defendants were convicted of one count of carjacking resulting in death and one count of conspiracy to commit carjacking. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr., of the New York Field Office, and New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James.
According to the indictment, public court filings and evidence presented at trial, as described in the release, the Orsinis plotted and executed Kraft's murder on April 28, 2020, after Kraft dropped his children off at the couple's home in Beacon, New York. The pair killed Kraft in the home and took his car and one of his cellphones. To make it appear that Kraft had left Beacon alive, Nicholas Orsini drove Kraft's car into Newburgh, New York, left it in a high-crime neighborhood, disposed of Kraft's cellphone and used a burner phone to call a taxi back to Beacon, discarding the burner phone before getting in. Jamie Orsini sent text messages to and from Nicholas Orsini's phone, which he had left at home, to suggest he never left the house that night.
Before the killing, the release states, the couple bought a 1,000-square-foot tarp and a full-body coverall, repeatedly practiced "dry runs" for moving Kraft's car, and purchased a burner phone to avoid being traced. Afterward, they destroyed evidence of the crime — including Kraft's body — buying a second burner phone for repeated drives to and from upstate New York and building large homemade incinerators.
"Justice has now been served in this tragic case," McDonald said in the release. "Kraft's body has never been found, and for years, his family has been forced to live with the unimaginable pain and uncertainty of not knowing what happened to their loved one." The office asked anyone with information about the location of Kraft's body to report it through the Justice Department's tip page.
Both defendants were to life in prison followed by five years of supervised release on count one, carjacking resulting in death, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119(3), to run concurrently with five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release on count two, conspiracy to commit carjacking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The case is being handled by the office's White Plains Division, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kaiya Arroyo, Michael D. Maimin and Kathryn P. Wheelock in charge of the prosecution.
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