14 DAY TRIAL // 21-year-old Julia Merfeld of Michigan has been caught on camera asking an undercover police officer to kill her husband.
She believed that the officer was a hit man, and she planned on hiring him to end the life of her 27-year-old husband because she didn't want to "break his heart" with a divorce.
She also had something to gain from the transaction – her husband's $400,000 (€312,000) life insurance policy was in her name.
"When I first decided to do this … it’s not that we weren’t getting along. [...] But … terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him," she describes on the video.
Michigan Live reported that she met with the alleged killer twice, for about 11 minutes on each occasion. During that time, she provided him with information about his schedule.
Upon checking her calendar, she concluded that it would be best to assassinate him on a Thursday. She adds that she doesn't want to know the time when the killing will take place.
"The more shocked I am when it happens, the better. [...] I just want to make it as non-suspicious as possible," she says.
The video was shot in April and Merfeld was arrested in May. She had offered to pay the killer $50,000 (€39,000) in several $9,000 (€7,035) installments after receiving her husband's insurance money.
The mother of two was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to soliciting a murder on June 27, and stands to be sentenced at the end of this month. Prosecutors will be asking for a life in prison sentence in her case.
Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti has allowed for the minimum sentencing time to be six years. The defendant's husband testified in court and asked the judge to let her off without jail time.
