Paragraph 8 reads: "On July 23, 2009, her mother called her (Patterson's) doctor's office, requested a prescription for Lexapro, a medication used to treat depression, and picked up 14 sample tablets of the drug, which she gave to her daughter."
A Shelby County mother and daughter were indicted by a federal grand jury today for conspiring in a 2009 murder-for-hire plot against the daughter's ex-husband, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley announced in a joint statement.
Kimberly Dawn McGuffie, 43, of Calera, and her mother, Barbara Louise Patterson, 63, of Columbiana, were indicted with conspiracy to commit murder for hire. McGuffie also was indicted with the underlying offense of murder for hire.
According to the indictment, McGuffie promised to pay a man $1,000 to kill her former spouse.
"It is horrifying that a mother and daughter would plot murder because the daughter wants to regain custody of her children," Vance said. "Thankfully, this murder didn't happen because an informant turned to law enforcement for help, and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the FBI came together to foil the crime and catch the perpetrators."
According to the indictment, Patterson and Kimberly McGuffie devised a plan to hire someone to kill McGuffie's ex-husband with a poison cocktail of prescription medication supplied, in part, by Patterson.
Here's how the plot unfolded according to the indictment:
In mid-July, 2009, Kimberly McGuffie first called an acquaintance and asked for his assistance in murdering her former spouse. She later met the man in person to discuss her plan.
On July 23, 2009, her mother called her (Patterson's) doctor's office, requested a prescription for Lexapro, a medication used to treat depression, and picked up 14 sample tablets of the drug, which she gave to her daughter.
In August, Kimberly McGuffie and Patterson drove to a location near Columbiana to meet and again try to enlist the assistance of the man they wanted to help them kill the ex-husband.
On Sept. 8, 2009, that man, who became a confidential informant to police, told Kimberly McGuffie in a telephone call that he had found someone to do the job and would introduce her to him that night. After the phone call, Kimberly McGuffie drove to the town of Shelby and bought methadone pills, which she added to her deadly cocktail.
Later that evening, McGuffie drove to a shopping center parking lot in Calera where she met the confidential informant and an undercover officer posing as Norman Wilson, the "hit man." She gave Wilson a small bag containing Lexapro, methadone and Xanax, and a key and a hand-drawn map to her ex-husband's home. She also wrote him a $1,000 check to cement her agreement to pay him for the murder.
McGuffie and Patterson were charged in state court in 2009.