FROM STAFF REPORTS

U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon sentenced a Calera woman to 10 years in prison for conspiring with her mother to hire someone to kill her ex-husband in 2009, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley.

Kimberly Dawn McGuffie, 44, of Calera pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in December. Judge Kallon sentenced her to the maximum statutory sentence allowed for the crime.

McGuffie was indicted along with her mother, Barbara Louise Patterson, 64, of Columbiana on the conspiracy charge in March 2011. McGuffie admitted in her plea that she had conspired with her mother to hire someone to kill McGuffie’s ex-husband with a poison cocktail of prescription medication supplied, in part, by Patterson. A federal jury in February convicted Patterson of the conspiracy. She is scheduled for sentencing May 31.

“In this country, we use the courts to resolve divorce and custody disputes. McGuffie, however, decided to arrange for the murder of her ex-husband to resolve her custody issues,” Vance said. “The murder plot was never executed because the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were able to prevent it. McGuffie is now facing 10 years alone in prison, instead of spending those years with her children.”

For details on McGuffie and Patterson’s conspiracy to make a deadly concoction to kill McGuffie’s ex-husband, click here.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Simpson is prosecuting the case.