Wife who wanted husband killed gets divorce payout
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
The story behind the legislation reads like a movie pitch. The wife of a Southern California police detective, distraught because she had lost custody of her children, tries to hire a hit man from the Vagos motorcycle gang to kill him. Instead, gang members alert police, who disguise themselves as biker thugs and secretly tape a conversation with her, leading to the wife's arrest and conviction for solicitation of murder.
But later on, in divorce court, she is awarded half the couple's property, even though she tried to have her husband whacked. He is determined to change the divorce law.
A bill scheduled to be heard today in a state legislative committee seeks to close what its author says is a loophole in the state's no-fault divorce code. The legislation will specify that spouses who solicit the murder of their husband or wife are not entitled to collect financial rewards in divorce proceedings.
The bill was prompted by John Pomroy, a police detective in Pomona, 30 miles east of Los Angeles. His wife collected $70,000 from their estate after she was released from prison in 2004.
"If you commit arson on your house, you don't get the insurance money. You go to prison and all sorts of things happen to you," Mr Pomroy said. "But if you try to kill someone that is your spouse, the current law allows you to collect something."
State law says that if spouses are convicted of murdering or attempting to murder their husband or wife, they are not entitled to any financial benefits during divorce proceedings. But if they hire someone else to do the dirty deed for them, their victims' assets are not protected.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments