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Three people get prison time for Middletown murder-for-hire plot

Posted at 1:29 PM, Mar 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-23 13:34:35-04

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- Three people who pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire plot that was hatched from a nasty divorce were sentenced to prison Thursday, the Journal-News reported.

Sarah Fryman, 21, and her husband, Casey Fryman, 32, both of Riverview Avenue in Middletown, were arrested in September when a plot was uncovered for Shelly Carter to have her estranged husband killed.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth sentenced Carter to eight years in prison, the maximum sentence. Husband and wife, Sarah and Casey Fryman, were each sentenced to six years in prison.

RELATED: Middletown woman pleads guilty to hiring hitman to kill estranged husband

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Spaeth called the actions “despicable and depraved”

The Frymans and Carter, 42, all pleaded guilty to attempted conspiracy to commit aggravated murder earlier this year. They all faced up to eight years in prison.

During her plea hearing last month, Sarah Fryman told Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth she was guilty of “trying to hire a hit man to kill my sister-in-law’s husband.”

Prosecutors say Sarah Fryman went to the hitman’s house to set up the deed.

Instead, the man told Middletown police about the plot.

Police said Carter was in fear of losing her home and custody of her children when she arranged to have her estranged husband, Christian “Tony” Carter, killed last September.

Carter told the judge at her plea hearing that she talked with a man in his backyard and asked him to kill her husband.

Police said the mother of two offered to pay a man $1,000 -- $500 up front and $500 after the job was completed -- and give him an SUV as payment if he killed her estranged husband by crashing into his car in front of the couple’s home.

The “accident” was timed to coincide for when Tony Carter would be dropping off the couple’s children, and Shelly Carter instructed the hit man to “do it even if the kids were in the car,” police testified.

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