A Florida woman whose case has appeared on both the TV show “COPS” and a season premiere of the Oxygen channel show “Murder For Hire” is fighting through her attorney to get a new trial. She was accused of trying to hire someone to murder her husband and is serving a 16-year prison sentence. However, the legal history behind her case has been a long and convoluted one.
In 2009, she was hired through an escort service by the man she would later marry while he was still married to someone else. He divorced his wife, but five months after he married the woman, an undercover police officer recorded her paying him $7,000 to kill him. She was convicted in 2011. The case was covered on other shows as well as “COPS.” In that trial, one part of her criminal defense was that she had been aware of being recorded. She claimed that it was her husband’s idea to make the tape in hopes of becoming reality TV stars
After her conviction was thrown out in 2011 following an appeal, she was retried and found guilty in 2017. Her husband testified in that trial that she had also tried to poison him with antifreeze in his tea. In late 2019, her appeal for yet another trial was rejected by the Florida Supreme Court.
One option for an individual in a case like this one, particularly when the person has been caught on tape, might be a plea bargain. With a plea bargain, an individual would plead guilty and, in exchange, would usually receive a lighter sentence. An attorney might also look at whether the person’s rights were violated. For example, in cases involving undercover law enforcement, it is important that a person is not coerced into committing a crime.
