Couples fight, that’s inevitable. Even the most easy going marriages can take a turn for the worse, leaving one or both spouses requesting a divorce. However, there are times when one spouse decides to take a different course of action – an illegal one.
Twenty-one-year-old Julia Charlene Merfeld decided she wanted to leave her husband – for good. But instead of filing for divorce as most couples would when a marriage falls apart, Merfeld was looking at getting some money and decided to go a different route. The Michigan woman ordered a hit on her husband, but unfortunately for her, the person she thought she was ordering the hit with was actually an undercover officer who videotaped their entire conversation.
In the video, Merfeld is caught saying that killing her 27-year-old husband Jacob would be easier than divorcing him. Not just for him, but for their two children as well. She wanted to spare Jacob the pain of going through a divorce, so she came up with a plan to have him killed. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to get her husband’s $400,000 life insurance policy as a result.
In the video, Merfeld is seen callously explaining to the undercover officer that her marriage wasn’t even on bad terms when she ordered the hit on her husband.
“When I first decided to do this, it’s not that we weren’t getting along, as terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him. I didn’t have to worry about the judgment of my family, I didn’t have to worry about breaking his heart, all that stuff, like this is like a clean getaway,” said Merfeld on the video.
Merfeld offered the undercover officer $50,000 for the hit and was later arrested. She pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder last month and yesterday was sentenced to spend 5 years and 8 months to 20 years in prison.
But perhaps in the strangest turn of events, Jacob Merfeld pleaded for leniency on his wife, despite the fact that she confessed to trying to get him killed.
“I know that my wife is a wonderful person. She is a godly woman,” he said in court, adding that he did not want their two children, ages 2 and 4, to be without their mother.
Many wonder how this man could possibly forgive his wife, but he did admit in court that he did not believe the marriage would be salvaged.
Perhaps Jacob is still in shock or maybe he is under the delusion that his wife actually cares about him and feels remorse for her actions. Many couples who are in abusive or volatile relationships often turn a blind eye to the situation at hand, failing to come to terms with the suffering they are enduring.
Filing for divorce in Michigan is never easy, but having an experienced Michigan family lawyer on your side can help the case resolve much faster and smoother than couples might imagine.
