Mom, sisters pay woman to kill daughter’s husband, feds say. ‘Don’t make any mistakes’
A mom is accused of trying to hire a woman in Alabama to kill her daughter’s husband with her sisters’ help.
Three women are now charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
Sandra Grimes and her sisters, Judy Owen and Mitzy Smith, recruited another woman to kill Grimes’ son-in-law, according to a May 8 criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Alabama.
Domingo Soto, the attorney representing Smith, told McClatchy News the government’s case is weak, and he denied the allegations against his client completely.
Owen’s attorney, Barre Dumas, told McClatchy News it was too soon to comment on the case. McClatchy News could not immediately get in touch with Grimes’ attorney May 15.
The woman they are accused of hiring told the government the sisters paid her money and gave her a gun to kill a man. She’s a convicted felon, according to court records, and Soto said she’s not credible.
In February, Owen paid a $500 veterinary bill for the woman and, in return, asked her to kill Grimes’ daughter’s husband, an FBI agent said in the complaint.
Grimes and Owen drove the woman from southwest Alabama near Mobile across the border to Louisiana and passed by the home of Grimes’ son-in-law, who they said was abusive, officials said.
The sisters said they previously paid someone else $10,000 to kill the man, but that person took the money and ran, according to the agent. The woman told the government she agreed to carry out the killing but wanted more money from the sisters.
Initially the sisters wanted the woman to make his death appear like an overdose, but later they delivered her a gun without a serial number at the bottom of a box of Christmas decorations, officials said.
But Soto said the government doesn’t have the box.
The sisters and the woman used alternate phones with one another’s contacts saved under fake names, but the woman referred to Grimes and the son-in-law by name multiple times, officials said.
FBI agents said they searched the phone and read the communications.
In text messages between Grimes and the woman, Grimes promises her “I am not going to do u wrong,” officials included in the complaint. “I am the smart one.”
She sent the woman money, as well as photos of the man’s license plate and the home, telling her which rooms were the kids’ and where the windows were located, among other details, officials said.
She told the woman, “Please don’t make any mistakes,” saying the kids were her and her daughter’s life, messages showed.
The woman the sisters are accused of hiring drove from Alabama to Louisiana several more times but did not kill the man, officials said.
After weeks without results, Owen began texting the woman as well, saying she wants “progress or my money u pick,” the FBI agent said in the complaint.
The sisters are charged with user of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to transfer a firearm to be used to commit a crime of violence, according to the complaint.
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