Rachael Leahy, a 35-year-old Florida woman, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after she tried to hire someone to kill her ex-husband.
Leahy, 35, was sentenced Monday, June 5, after pleading no contest to criminal solicitation to commit murder.
In August 2016, Leahy spoke with an undercover sheriff’s detective whom she thought was a hit man, telling him that her ex-husband could be kidnapped and taken to another country and made into a sex slave. She also suggested that he could die in an apparent accident, like a fire or drowning.
Leahy told the undercover detective she could pay him $5,000 after collecting on her ex-husband’s life insurance policy.
Authorities said Leahy hatched her sinister plan because she wanted custody of their children. Leahy met with the undercover officer several times to give him information about her ex-husband and a photo of him. She also paid the fake hitman $2,500 with the intention to pay him more money later.
In one video from the meetings, Leahy allegedly said that she saw no other way to work out the custody battle with her ex than to have him killed.
“The only thing that matters is I don’t get to see my children,” she said, according to the Bradenton Herald. “There’s no other resolution to this other than him to be gone completely.”
According to police, Leahy planned to leave the country while the murder was taking place.
