A former model, known for her eye-catching outfits, will be modeling behind bars after hiring a hitman to execute her husband’s ex-wife.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Tara Arbogast entered a plea of guilty to single count of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder after investigators discovered that she paid a man a $125 down payment to execute her husband’s ex-wife Kellie Cooke.
Knece sentenced her to five years in prison. Arbogast gets credit for about 16 months of time served, though, because she had already been convicted of the charge in January 2016. Last year, the Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned that conviction because of an error in the language in the original charges and Arbogast was freed from what had been a seven-year sentence.
Pickaway County prosecutors re-indicted Arbogast, and that’s what put everyone back in court Wednesday. Five years was a sentence agreed upon by both prosecutors and defense attorney Sam Shamansky.
Arbogast became the target of an investigation after she met an undercover detective and sough to enlist his services.
In the midst of a contentious court fight over visitation, Arbogast met a man, who turned out to be an undercover detective, in the parking lot of the Circleville KFC and told him she wanted Cooke dead.
“I need her away. Gone,” Arbogast told the detective, all caught on a hidden camera inside his vehicle. “Just put her in a chopper, you know like one of those lumberjack chopper things.”
Arbogast was sentenced to 5 years in prison but will serve roughly 3.5 years after receiving credit for time served.
To see Tara Arbogast sentencing video, the letter written to the court by her step-daughters, and trial photos from the previous hearing, flip the pages.