Kris Sao Bento has changed the locks on her front door and is "obsessive" about alarm systems nearly two years after a would-be assassin -- hired by her estranged husband -- attacked her.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 17, 2006

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Terror comes at the most peaceful times.

For Kris Sao Bento, it descends into the basement, as she fetches clothing from the cedar closet where the hit man planned to hide. Or in the garden, planting perennials, when the approach of a stranger leaves her paralyzed with fear.

It has been nearly two years since a would-be assassin from Arizona hired by her estranged husband bludgeoned Sao Bento with a claw hammer at her Coventry home. But she is still startled by an unexpected visitor, and deliveries to her Gadoury Avenue address must be deposited at the door.

"You don't walk away the same person," Sao Bento said yesterday, speaking publicly about the assault for the first time. "I don't care if it's a nun selling Girl Scout cookies. I'll never open the door again."

In January, Sao Bento's former husband, Thomas J. Lewis, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. On Thursday, Kent County Superior Court Judge Melanie W. Thunberg sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

Sao Bento's life had endured hard times before July 19, 2004. Her 1998 marriage to Lewis, 44, had deteriorated amid allegations of infidelity and hostility. Eventually, the pair separated, leaving her alone to raise their infant son, Christian.

But in Rhode Island she was aided by her large and loving family, which frequently gathered at their summer getaway in Bristol. Even in their darkest days, Lewis, a personal trainer who towered over his wife, was never physically abusive, Sao Bento, 38, says.

As a vice president for an asset-management firm, Sao Bento rarely felt unsafe; at home she had little reason to doubt her security.

That changed two summers ago. Spaghetti was on the stove, Christian was on the living room couch, and an unfamiliar man, Thomas M. Kenna, was knocking at her door.

Sipping coffee yesterday near her Weybosset Street office, her eyes hidden behind black sunglasses, Sao Bento recalled Kenna's first blow as arriving instantaneously. Blood poured from her forehead, obscuring her vision as the hammer fell again and again.

The struggle shifted from the doorway to the front yard, and as Kenna pounded at Sao Bento's forehead and arm, she felt grateful that Christian was safe.

"As soon as I opened the door -- wham! -- he just lunged right at me and hit me," she said. "He was holding on to me. I just wanted to get him away from my son."

The assault ended when two neighbors subdued Kenna and he was arrested by Coventry police. Sao Bento was taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital with injuries to her arm, head and neck. She was released later that night.

Beyond pain, Sao Bento was overcome with confusion. She had never seen Kenna, had no enemies, and had no reason to suspect her husband.

"I knew he was angry, but I didn't think he was capable of this," she said of Lewis. "I didn't know what to think."

The next day, the police told her that they had discovered detailed maps of her home and neighborhood in Kenna's motel room in Johnston, as well as her photograph and information about her family's home in Bristol and the location of her office in Providence. Though incomprehensible, her husband's involvement was now clear, she said.

By most appearances, Sao Bento's recovery was astoundingly swift. The attack occurred on a Monday, and she was back to work before the weekend. Her doctor recommended a trauma counselor, and she agreed to give it a try. But after several sessions, she was declared emotionally fit.

Her wounds healed, leaving only slight scars on her arm and a mark on her forehead barely visible by her long, wavy black hair.

At Thursday's hearing, defense attorney Michael J. Lepizzera argued for a lesser sentence, saying Sao Bento had emerged relatively unscathed, alive to tell her tale.

But the fear lingers.

Released from the hospital, Sao Bento moved into the house in Bristol, where the lock on the front door was rarely used. Immediately, she asked her brother, Steven, and her mother, Gloria, to make sure all the windows and doors in the house were locked.

Kenna had been arrested the day of the attack, but Lewis was not locked up at the Adult Correctional Institutions for another month and a half -- Sept. 3, 2004, Kenneth Findlay, a prison spokesman, said. So for six weeks, Kris Sao Bento was shadowed by armed guards who followed her to work and to the supermarket, and patrolled her home as she slept.

She has not told Christian, now 3, about the attack. One day, she will have to explain to him about the scar on her forehead and why his father is in prison.

On Thursday, Sao Bento sat surrounded by relatives in the front row of a Warwick courtroom and watched a shackled Lewis sent away to prison for several decades. Kenna is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Dressed in a neat skirt and blouse, Sao Bento appeared healthy and strong, betraying little emotion even as her mother sat by her side in tears.

After Judge Thunberg walked out, Sao Bento expressed sympathy for Lewis, saying she hoped his pledge to stay away from her and Christian was as sincere as his apology sounded. "I don't wish him harm," she said.

Still, she has changed her locks on her front door and remains "obsessive" about the alarm system. Sometime soon, she plans to sell her house, afraid Lewis might dispatch another hit man to hunt her down.

"You're always on guard," she said yesterday. "He's unstable, and I don't know what would happen if he were freed."

Gripping flowers from a colleague in a sun-drenched courtyard, Sao Bento said she hoped Kenna's sentencing hearing would be her last appearance in court.

Despite being attacked with a hammer and learning that her husband was to blame, she declared herself "lucky" to escape without serious injury. But she did express one simple wish: "I'm going to have a nice, boring life for a while."

bgedan@projo.com / (401) 277-8072