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Crime novelist accused of hiring hit man to kill husband

On Behalf of | Dec 29, 2011 | Divorce

It’s a story you would expect to find in a crime novel: A woman finds that her husband has been cheating. Rather than simply asking for a divorce, she hires a hit man to get back at him. That’s what police are alleging happened between a couple in Texas, which is fitting because the wife accused in this true-life story is a crime novelist. Now that she’s been arrested, she might be penning her next book from behind bars.

Back in April, the woman wrote on her Facebook page that she had come home to find her husband cheating on her. She later wrote that they were planning on getting a divorce but were still living together. According to a sheriff working on the case, the wife had a lot of “personal issues” to resolve as a result of her husband’s infidelity. If the accusations against her are true, one of those personal issues was arranging his death.

Police say the woman hired an undercover sheriff’s deputy posing as a hit man, telling him her husband had girlfriends, their house was in foreclosure, and she wanted her spouse killed. She allegedly gave the deputy a wedding ring as a down payment and said that as soon as she was able to cash in her husband’s $180,000 life insurance policy, the hit man would get $60,000. She also gave him a picture of her husband so he could identify the man he was supposed to kill.

The woman was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit capital murder, and her husband was tipped off to her alleged attempts to end his life. Her bond is set at $75,000, which would have been more than enough to pay for a divorce and simply walk away from her husband and his supposed transgressions. Instead, she faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted, while her husband remains free to be with whomever he wants.

Source: CBS News, “Cops: Texas crime novelist tried to hire hit man to murder estranged husband,” Dec. 19, 2011

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