Columbus Woman Agrees To Plea Deal In Murder-For-Hire Plot

(Columbus) A Columbus woman federally charged in a murder-for-hire plot agreed to a plea deal Thursday. Under the deal, Kelly Harper would plead guilty to a Murder Solicitation charge and be sentenced to six years in federal prison. The agreement still needs to be accepted by the U.S. District Court, if it is rejected Harper can withdraw her plea. The court calendar shows that no plea hearing date has been set yet. Harper was taken into custody in February for reportedly using the dark web in attempts to hire a hitman and pay them in bitcoin currency to kill her ex-husband. Prosecutors says the 37-year-old gave details of the Sun Prairie man including physical descriptions, his vehicle, and where he worked on a murder-for-hire website. She also allegedly shared a screenshot of a Bitcoin wallet with a value of about $5,633 to the site’s administrator. A group of journalists found the posting and turned over the evidence to authorities.