Woman Who Plotted Husband's Murder Released After Six Months
The Plain Dealer
Woman in murder-for-hire scheme walks free
James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
A Medina County woman who hired a police officer posing as a hit man to kill her husband avoided prison Wednesday.
Traci Heath, 40, of Spencer, walked out of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court a free woman after convincing a judge she was a battered spouse and a reluctant participant in the murder-for-hire scheme.
Joe Heath, 41, the intended victim, said he felt as if he were the accused in the case instead of his ex-wife, whom he divorced last September. He denied her accusations of physical abuse, and no police or hospital records contradict him. Their two teenage daughters also vouched for their father's innocence.
Traci Heath could have received from three to 10 years in prison, but Judge Judith Kilbane Koch sentenced her to five years probation for conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. Traci Heath pleaded guilty to the charges in April.
The judge would not allow the daughters to speak in court. Nor would she watch a videotape of Traci Heath discussing the killing that prosecutors felt would have demonstrated the defendant's cruel demeanor.
Kilbane Koch also ordered North Olmsted police, who investigated the crime, to return to Traci Heath the money given to the would-be hit man. She is to use the money for her daughter's college tuition, according to court records.
"This sentence is shocking and deeply disturbing," said Assistant County Prosecutor Mark Mahoney. "The community had an interest in this case, and the community should be outraged by the outcome."
Traci Heath's lawyer, Roger Synenberg, said his client feared for her life and the lives of her daughters. He said Joe Heath threatened to kill them and himself.
Traci Heath sought out a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang or other rough characters to kill her husband, according to Mahoney. A friend introduced her to a would-be hit man named Jeff, who actually was a North Olmsted detective working undercover. They met in a department store parking lot and consummated the deal: $6,000 up front and $6,000 after he killed Joe Heath. Detectives arrested Traci Heath as she drove away.
Traci Heath claimed in court documents that she had no intention of following through wit the plot. She said she would have backed out, but her friend and Jeff egged her on. They pushed her to come up with the money and claimed that her daughters were in danger if she failed, she said.
"Traci had severe mental disorders that impaired her ability to think rationally and resist manipulation" by a friend, said Robert Kaplan, a clinical psychologist who examined the defendant.
"If not for [the friend}, the crime never would have occurred," Kaplan surmised.
Synenberg said his client needs mental health treatment, not prison.
Mahoney accused the defense of distorting the facts and misleading the judge.
He noted that Traci Heath carried on an affair during the last few years of their marriage, bought a gun, threatened to kill her husband and stood to collect $100,000 in insurance money if her husband, who owns a construction company, died under what appeared to be accidental circumstances.
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