A former New Jersey woman was caught on videotape trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband, CBS reports. Julia Merfeld pled guilty to a murder for hire plot after authorities caught her soliciting the help of a hit man. The 21-year-old wanted her husband dead because she said "it would be easier than divorcing him."
The man she tried to hire was an undercover cop who recorded two separate conversations with the woman on how she wanted her husband killed. Merfeld had recently relocated to Michigan from Monmouth County, New Jersey because of a job change her husband took. She originally asked her coworker, Carlos Ramos, to do the job for her but he instead alerted police who set up the undercover operation.
"When I first decided to do this, it's not that we weren't getting along," she explained in one of the videos. "As terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him. I didn't have to worry about the judgment of my family, I didn't have to worry about breaking his heart, all that stuff like this. It's like, how I got a clean getaway."
The mother of two told the fake hit man that at first she didn't want her 27-year-old husband killed in their home for several reasons. One, she said it would be too messy and two, her friend was planning on moving in with her and she didn't want her friend to be scared. Later on she decided that it would be ok for her husband to be killed in their house telling the hit man to make it look like a robbery by stealing some of their stuff. She ensured him that she would be at work and he would be in the pantry.
Merfeld also provided the undercover cop with a floor plan of their house, a picture of her husband and a cash down payment. She told the guy that she would pay him $50,000 to do the job and that the money would be coming out of her husband's $400,000 life insurance policy. To avoid suspicion from her bank she said that he would get a weekly installment of $9,000.
According to MLive, which has both videos, the woman never complained about her husband or discussed anything that he might have done to lead her to this decision but she did stress that she didn't want him to suffer. Authorities believe the life insurance policy had a lot to do with it.
During the two meetings, which took place in April, Merfeld discussed possible dates with the hit man. MLive reports that at the time of these meetings, her two small kids were at a family member's house in New Jersey. At one point in the video, the young wife does seem to have second thoughts about the whole thing once the undercover cop starts telling her how he would kill her husband.
She tells the cop that it "makes her sad" but then asks what would happen if he got caught. Before getting out of the car the two wish each other good luck. According to reports, Merfeld was arrested after the second meeting. On June 27 she pled guilty and can face a minimum of six years in jail when she is sentenced later in the month. Merfeld's husband however, doesn't want his wife to face jail time, MLive reports.
