Staying connected with high school friends on social media provided the 48-year-old mother in this true crime with the resource she thought would make her troubles go away.
Reportedly, she chose the high school classmate to help her because she knew he’d committed crimes and had been to prison. But when she asked him to murder her husband for a price, he reported her murderous plot to the authorities.
The friend told her he wasn’t comfortable murdering someone, but he knew a guy who could do the job. The friend of her friend was an undercover officer.
She told the hitman that her husband had been physically and sexually abusing their five-year-old daughter. And that the judge didn’t care, the system was corrupt, etc. He accepted the job for a $5,000 down payment followed by $20,000 after she sold her house. The mother reported her abuse claims to the state’s Department of Children and Families. They determined her claims were unfounded.
Officers observed her make the initial payment and then throw away the clothes she worn when she gave the hitman the deposit. After he told her the job was done and her ex-husband was dead, she thanked him.
The spouse is always a suspect. She knew the authorities would question her. She didn’t know they had all the evidence needed to arrest and charge her.
The mother opted for a jury trial. After five days, the jury found her guilty of using an interstate commerce facility in the commission of murder-for-hire and making a false statement to a federal officer.
A U.S. Attorney associated with the case said,
“Despite calculation and concealment, the defendant's murderous plot was averted due to the exceptional work of a citizen and our law enforcement partners.”
A federal judge sentenced her to 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The judge also ordered the money she’d paid to the ‘hitman’ to be forfeited. #murderousplot #murderforhire
Her plan to rid the world of her ex-husband so she could have sole custody of her daughter backfired. When she’s released from prison, her daughter will be 20 years old.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Law & Crime, Oxygen