Husband tried to kill enstranged wife by poisoning her toothpaste ..
A man tried to kill his wife by poisoning her toothpaste after she filed for divorce.Staci Wortman felt a burning sensation when she tried to brush her teeth and she quickly spat it out.
It left Staci with a bad headache and her young daughter, who had also used it, complained of the same reaction. Staci told her parents, and her mum kept the tube – not really understanding why at the time.
When that attempt on Staci’s life failed, they tried two more times to kill her.
Staci had three children under 10 with her husband Fred Auston Wortman, 39 – two girls and a boy.
They’d met at university and Staci had been bowled over by the charming football player.
Fred was smart, generous and kind – perfect husband material.But in April 2014, after 14 years of marriage, Staci filed for divorce. She claimed Fred had been unfaithful and had cheated several times throughout their marriage.
Fred moved out and they tried to keep things amicable for their kids. Fred saw them regularly .She thought Fred was coping well with the divorce, but he was making his own plans for a much more final separation.
In January 2015, a few weeks after the toothpaste incident, the police came with shocking news. They had been tipped off that Fred had used computers at his work to research how to hire a hitman using the digital currency, Bitcoin. He’d also looked up various poisons. With a picture of Staci on the computer, they concluded she was the target.
They set up an undercover agent posed as a hitman willing to help Fred out.Fred fell for it completely. He handed over money and instructed him to kill his estranged wife, even telling him where to find potential murder weapons around the house and when she’d be home. Fred also said it didn’t matter if the kids were there at the time of the attempt.
It enabled police to put Fred behind bars with a £10 million bail. Finally, Staci thought she was safe, but in July there was another blow. Fred tried to have her killed for a third time. He’d approached an inmate and offered him £7,000 to murder his wife.
Eventually Fred made a plea agreement on the attempted first-degree murder charges. He pleaded guilty to poisoning the toothpaste, to trying to hire a hitman and for attempting to recruit an inmate to kill Staci.
The pleas are known as ‘best interest’, which means he’d accept 30 years in prison with the chance of parole after 10 years without formally admitting guilt.
But in court in November last year, Fred surprised everyone with a statement admitting ‘full responsibility’ for his actions and apologised to Staci and his children.
"No apology which I offer will be sufficient to all who I have disappointed, let down and hurt. I do apologise to Staci, the Joneses [her family], my parents, my family, most of all, I apologise to my three precious children," he said. "I hope they know my unfailing love for them. I am truly sorry."Culled from Uk Mirror
The prosecution advised he serve the full 30 years of his sentence and described his actions as a ‘pattern of darkness’.
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