Woman Who Tried To Kill Ex-Husband With ‘Death Spell’ Pleaded Guilty — Then Tried AGAIN After Trial!
Whoa! Remember this lady? We have the wildest update on what was already one of the strangest true crime cases we’ve ever followed!
OK, so to recap… Dr. Stephanie Russell was a beloved pediatrician in Kentucky who was so mad her ex-husband got custody of the kids she decided to murder him. Not herself, mind you. This was a murder-for-hire plot. Stephanie agreed to pay $7,000 to a hitman to kill ex Rick Crabtree — only the “hitman” was actually an undercover FBI agent. She was arrested in May 2022.
The wildest part is the investigation revealed Dr. Russell had tried some pretty unscientific methods to kill Rick first. Messages showed she tried to hire three different witch doctors/spiritual healers to cast a “death spell” on him! For real, the transcripts are WILD! Eventually she just went back to plain old murder, and BOOM. Prison.
Related: Mica Miller’s Allegedly Abusive Pastor Ex Tried To RAISE HER FROM THE DEAD!
OK, so fast-forward to April of this year when her trial was about to start. With the mountain of evidence against her, she finally gave in and pleaded guilty. That was on April 22, 2024. The sentencing hearing was scheduled for the end of July, but something happened in the meantime… SHE TRIED AGAIN!
Prosecutors claim in a shocking sentencing document obtained by Law&Crime that the very next day after pleading guilty for trying to hire someone to kill her ex, she tried to hire someone else to do it! While in prison! The filing reads:
“The day after Russell entered her guilty plea, the United States was notified that Russell, who is in pre-trial detention, was soliciting other female prisoners in a renewed effort to find someone to murder her ex-husband.”
She apparently was trying to get a fellow inmate’s boyfriend, still on the outside, to commit the crime! The doc cited “a letter postmarked April 22, 2024, the date of Russell’s guilty plea, sent by another pretrial detainee to her boyfriend at Russell’s behest.” The not-so-good doc was STILL looking for a hitter to take out her ex, said prosecutors:
“Russell wanted to know if the boyfriend knew anyone who would be willing to kill her ex-husband. The letter included the name and address of Russell’s ex-husband, personal identifying information which, to the government’s knowledge, had not been made publicly available either as part of the federal criminal prosecution or the family court litigation.”
It doesn’t look like the DA is looking to bring another count here, but based on this evidence they are objecting to Stephanie getting any kind of reduction to her prison sentence based on “acceptance of responsibility” — as she clearly hasn’t taken any responsibility yet!
Russell was looking at a sentence between 97 and 144 months, or 12 years. The prosecution is now asking for “a sentence at the high end of that range, or 144 months.” Something tells us they’re going to get it, and she’s going to be behind bars a long time. But if we were this woman’s ex we might sleep with one eye open anyway.
[Image via Oldham County Detention Center.]
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