Woman gets 20-year sentence for trying to order husband's death

SARASOTA (FOX 13) - Rachael Leahy hung her head and never made eye contact with her ex-husband.  David Leahy took the stand to describe how his ex-wife's actions scarred him and their three children.

"We changed all the locks in the doors. We got security cameras all over the house," he said.

Last September, investigators with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office arrested Rachael after she agreed to pay an undercover detective posing as a hit man $5,000 to kill her ex-husband.

"There is no other resolution for this other than him to be gone completely," she said in a video.

The video played in court showed a callus Rachael joking with the undercover detective as she described what she would want done to her ex.

"It would be great if a group of people all in black and hoods and stuff just grab and throw him in a van and take him overseas and make them his man bi**h," she said.

Rachael's attorney said she suffers from PTSD and other mental illnesses resulting from abuse as a child. He told the judge she viewed herself as a victim and wanted custody of her three kids. He said she didn't believe she could get them back.

"That became more and more of an expression of the trauma that she was feeling inside and feeling she was losing everything," said Dr. Harry Morgan.

A tearful Rachael spoke out on her behalf, begging the judge for mercy.

"I want to apologize to my ex-husband to him because it was so wrong. I ask for his forgiveness. I would not do this over again. I do not know what I was thinking," she said.

But in the end, Judge Deno Economou told Rachael everyone loses in this case.

"Miss Leahy, there are consequences to one's actions," he said.

With that, he sentenced Rachael Leahy to 20 years in prison with three years of probation.