This photo provided by the Nassau County Police Department shows Susan Williams of Garden City, N.Y. Williams, a 43-year-old mother of four, was arrested Thursday, March 4, 2010 after agreeing to pay an undercover officer posing as a hit-man $20,000 to kill her husband. (AP Photo/Nassau County Police Department)
A Garden City woman was convicted Monday of agreeing to pay an undercover detective posing as a hitman $20,000 to kill her husband nine months ago.
A Nassau County jury found Susan Williams guilty of conspiracy and possession of a forged instrument. She faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 17.
The 44-year-old met with a private investigator who she had previously hired to investigate her husband, Peter Williams, while the couple was getting divorced and told him in February that she wanted her husband “to disappear” and asked him if he could arrange the hit.
The investigator reported the solicitation to authorities, who had the investigator set up plans for Williams to meet the “hitman” at the Country Glen Shopping Centre in Carle Place about a week later. The undercover detective told her the hit would cost $20,000 during the meeting.
The next month, Williams met with the detective at Eisenhower Park where she gave him a photo of her husband, his contact information and a $500 down payment.
Williams also forged the Change of Ownership form on her husband’s life insurance policy without his knowledge to insure that her status as the beneficiary of his policy could not be changed. The policy was for $1 million in the event of his death.
Prosecutors said 22-year-old Francis Trapani of Atlantic Beach, Williams’ daughter’s boyfriend, was arrested last week on charges of tampering with a juror for allegedly calling one of the jurors on the case. He is due at First District Court in Hempstead Nov. 23.
