PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon woman has pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire plot that fell apart when the parolee she paid to kill her ex-husband decided to inform him about the plan.
Pamela Gygi, 58, of southwestern Lane County, entered guilty pleas Monday to charges of firearm possession and using interstate commerce in a murder-for-hire plot. Federal prosecutors said she faces up to 15 years in prison, KVAL-TV reported.
FBI Special Agent Timothy Suttles said in an affidavit that the woman’s ex-husband, Dean Hamill, who lives in Utah, told police in June 2015 that he was visited by a man who said he had been hired by Gygi to kill him.
The would-be hit man told Suttles that Gygi had paid him $600, and was promised a residence in California, the title to a 2005 Dodge Stratus and the ex-husband’s online business. Divorce papers indicate the business is a dog and cat breeding website. Court documents did not identify the parolee, saying only that he was a cooperating witness.
Gygi and her ex-husband were in the middle of a dispute over personal property and she stood to collect on a life insurance policy, the affidavit said.
After the husband went to police, the would-be hit man made several audio-recorded meetings with Gygi.
On June 25, the two discussed tampering with the ex-husband’s vehicle to make the death seem like an accident, the affidavit stated. They later decided an accident might only injure the man, not kill him. Gygi also worried that her son might be in the vehicle, court documents said.
During a recorded phone call July 7, Gygi told the parolee she would give him a gun and the Dodge Stratus he would use to drive to Utah, the documents said.
In another recorded call, the two arranged to meet July 10 at a mall east of Eugene. Police arrested Gygi that day.
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