A former Marine and baker has admitted she tried to hire a hit man to kill the father of her child.
Laura Buckingham, who owned a cafe in southern Indiana but moved to East Tennessee, pleaded guilty to Solicitation to Commit First Degree Murder on Tuesday.
It's been almost three years since Buckingham contracted with an undercover TBI agent to kill Brad Sutherland, the father of her 3-year-old son. He lived in New Albany, Indiana, and prosecutors said she resented making the weekly trips to deliver the boy for visitation, and she even feared losing custody altogether.
Buckingham admitted that she asked her new boyfriend, Joe Chamblin, to help make Sutherland go away.
Chamblin, another former Marine, told a Roane County investigator about Buckingham's request, and secretly began recording their conversations.
District Attorney General Russell Johnson brought in the TBI, who used an undercover agent to meet with Buckingham to arrange the murder. She agreed to pay him $30,000 and gave him part of the money.
The investigators went so far as to enlist Sutherland to stage his death in a parking garage for a photo to fool Buckinham into thinking the job was done.
Buckingham was arrested and housed in the Roane County jail in March 2016, but was soon released because the jail was overcrowded and she was pregnant. She's been free but has worn an ankle monitoring device since then.
Buckingham's crime carries an 8 to 30 year sentence, but since she had no criminal history, prosecutors agreed to a 10 year sentence. A sentencing hearing is set for March 18, 2019, where the judge will determine how that sentence will be served.
