Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

US woman gets life after hiring teen who killed wrong man

Image
AP Columbia (US)
Last Updated : Jul 25 2015 | 1:57 AM IST
A US woman was sentenced to life in prison after she hired a teen to kill a man, and he killed the wrong man by mistake.
A judge sentenced Karlita Desean Phillips yesterday after a jury found her guilty of accessory before the fact of murder and soliciting a minor to commit a felony, according to prosecutor David Stumbo.
Authorities have said that Phillips, 41, hired a 17-year-old to kill her estranged husband in March 2013, but the teen killed her husband's brother by mistake. The brother was ambushed as he slid his key into the door of his home, investigators say.
Stumbo said Phillips was motivated in part by life insurance payouts due to her at her husband's death. The husband had a life insurance policy through work that would have paid Phillips USD 500,000 at his death, prosecutors said. She also took out an additional USD 25,000 life insurance policy on her husband through her own employer.
The teen, who is awaiting trial for murder in the husband's brother's death, was sentenced to 45 years in prison earlier this year for killing another man in an unrelated case. At trial, he testified he and Karlita Phillips were in a sexual relationship and that she agreed to pay him USD 13,000 for the killing.

More From This Section

First Published: Jul 25 2015 | 1:57 AM IST

Next Story