Wife Convicted of Hiring Hit Man for Husband

Jan. 28 -- The Voits appeared to be a picture-perfect middle class suburban family, until two years ago, when Kerry Voit went to the police with a shocking allegation: His wife, Sharon, wanted to hire someone to kill him.

Cook County Sheriff's Department arranged a sting operation in which she was caught on tape, arranging her husband's murder. A jury heard the tape and returned a guilty verdict against Sharon Voit, 51, who now faces as much as 40 years in prison.

"For $7,000, she thought she was going to get a cheap divorce," Assistant State's Attorney Russ Baker said during closing arguments. But family friends and Sharon Voit's attorney insist that there is more to the story.

Kerry and Sharon Voit were high school sweethearts who got married right out of their teens. She put him through dental school, and the couple had four daughters. They lived in Golf, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. But all was not well with Sharon Voit.

A family friend supposedly heard her saying that her husband was abusive, and openly asking people how to find a hit man that could kill him. The friend relayed those comments to Kerry Voit, who went to the Cook County Sheriff's Department.

A Chilling Conversation

Police arranged a sting operation with Cook County Sheriff's officer Timothy Kaufmann playing the role of a "hit man." He met Sharon Voit in her car in a mall parking lot to offer his services, claiming that he was a Vietnam veteran who wasn't afraid to kill people. In a conversation that police taped, Sharon Voit accepted his offer to kill her husband and agreed to pay $7,000 for the hit.

"So you tell me you want it done, it's done, OK," Kaufmann told her.

"Yes," Sharon Voit said. "There's no question in my mind."

After listening to a tape of Sharon Voit speaking to Kauffman, and deliberating for less than five hours, a Cook County, Ill., jury found her guilty of attempted murder and solicitation of murder.

According to the tape, Voit seemed to go along with the plan to kill her husband, and remained cool as the gruesome details were discussed.