Thursday, November 30, 2006
A husband faces two counts of solicitation of murder -- his wife is pregnant.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- Albert Jackson Sterling II left the back door unlocked for the man he hired to kill his pregnant wife, police say.
As the Sterlings and their 3-year-old son drove to the airport, Jeffrey Thompson slipped into their stately brick home in Allen, Texas, and waited.
The plan had been to put on Sterling's gloves, kill his wife, dump her body and leave her car in a different location, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. For that, Sterling would pay him 2,500.
"The chicken has flown the coop," Sterling said in a voice mail message to Thompson recovered by Allen police. "She will be there in an hour. Just have patience."
Sterling, 38, was arrested last Wednesday in New Mexico on two counts of criminal solicitation of capital murder -- one for his 8-months pregnant wife and another for the unborn child. Police said he arranged to have his wife killed while he was away visiting family for the holidays.
Court documents released Tuesday detail the plan Thompson said he was hired to carry out. He ultimately abandoned it and decided not to kill Ms. Sterling, but to warn her instead. Police said they don't plan to charge him.
Roxane Sterling, 37, was unharmed.
She is in Louisiana with her family and could not be reached Tuesday.
Her husband is awaiting an extradition hearing on Thursday. He declined to be interviewed. Russell Wilson, Sterling's attorney, said his client is innocent of all charges and has no reason to kill his wife or child.
"We are looking into the case and the information Allen police have. And we are very confident that it's incomplete, inaccurate and incorrect," Wilson said. "Albert Sterling did not hire Jeff Thompson. He loves his family very much."
Changed his mind
Thompson, who police have described as an acquaintance of Sterling's, told police that he decided he would not kill Ms. Sterling the night before the plan was supposed to unfold.
But Sterling picked him up at a pub at noon last Tuesday as planned and dropped him off at the couple's 405,000 home before leaving with his wife, the affidavit says.
After driving her husband and son to the airport, Mrs. Sterling stopped briefly at work, then drove home. She entered her house through the garage.
She found Thompson in her bedroom, wearing black gloves and holding his belt.
He called her by name and said her husband had hired him to kill her, he told police. He would not harm her, he said. He said he would probably get in trouble, but she needed to call police. He would not run.
Ms. Sterling backed into the hallway, and sat on a bench, in shock. She watched Thompson remove a glove. Then she ran.
As her neighbor called 911, Mrs. Sterling sobbed uncontrollably.
At the Allen Police Department, Thompson described the plan. He had always been told "the truth will set you free," he told them, and he was going to see if that was true.
"The fool tried to get someone to kill his wife," he told police, according to the affidavit.
Bluff call
While with police, Thompson called Sterling's cell phone.
Using code words the men had worked out, Thompson bluffed about the fate of Ms. Sterling's car and her body.
"The chariot is in South Dallas," Thompson told Sterling. "The trash," he said, was in West Dallas.
Thompson asked when he would get paid. Sterling responded, "When the paperwork is done," the affidavit described.
Police have said Thompson is "not a hit man," but an acquaintance Sterling thought would carry out the plan. Police, Sterling's family and his attorney did not know or would not say how the two men met.
Thompson's criminal history includes convictions of possession of cocaine, robbery, burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle or joy riding, according to court records. He could not be reached for comment.
The Sterlings have been married six years.