Sisters tried to pay woman to kill man, make it look like overdose, agent testifies

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA/Gray News) - Three sisters plotted for weeks to put a hit on a man, according to testimony in federal court on Tuesday

Mitzy Gaye Smith, 54, Judy Owen, 61, and Sandra Grimes, 57, are all charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire, conspiracy to transfer a firearm to be used in a violent crime and use of interstate commerce facilities to commit murder for hire.

FBI Special Agent Jennifer Whitehurst testified that the FBI learned of the plot when Rebecca Murphy told agents that her neighbor, Smith, introduced her to her sisters. Murphy claimed that the women wanted to kill Grimes’ son-in-law because he had beaten Grimes’ daughter, once so badly that she suffered a broken hip.

The sisters initially paid a man $10,000 to do the job, but he took their money and went away, according to testimony.

Whitehurst testified that the women then turned to Murphy, offering her money and taking her on a trip to Louisiana to show her where the man lived. Grimes provided photos of the inside of the man’s house. Grimes and Owen allegedly took Murphy on two other trips to Louisiana.

Owen gave Murphy money to buy heroin and told her to inject the man with a lethal dose, according to Whitehurst.

“They wanted it to look like it was an overdose,” Whitehurst said, adding that Owen and Grimes alternatively suggested slitting his throat or shooting him.

Smith also gave Murphy a gun hidden in a box of Christmas decorations, according to authorities.

Whitehurst said the gun convinced Murphy that the plot was more than idle talk.

“She took it as they were serious, ‘They really want me to do this,’” Whitehurst said.

Whitehurst testified that Murphy decided she could not go through with it when one of the women said she did not care if the man died in front of his children.

Whitehurst said on cross-examination that Murphy did not come forward with her allegations sooner because “she felt like her life was in danger.”

“She had been threatened by the three sisters,” she said.

Defense attorney Dom Soto countered that little of the testimony directly implicated his client and that the case is based on the unsubstantiated account of Rebecca Murphy, an admitted drug user with at least five felony convictions, two of which involved dishonesty.

“I wouldn’t trust what Ms. Murphy says about any of this,” he said.