Dad: Killer Mom Can't Have Son in Prison

Aug. 27 -- Bruce Faust says he is ready to go to jail to keep his 6-year-old son from spending the night in prison with his ex-wife. The woman is serving two life sentences for the murder of Bruce's girlfriend and a man who tried to come to her aid.

Kimberly Faust is serving her time in the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, which for 26 years has allowed inmates to receive overnight visits from their children if they are under 8 years old.

She was convicted last winter in the slayings of Shannon Bluhm, 27, and Robert Parminter, 45, who were killed outside Parminter's home on April 25, 2000. Prosecutors said Kimberly Faust stabbed Bluhm in her car and then set it on fire. Parminter ran from his home and pulled Bluhm from the burning vehicle. Kimberly Faust then shot them both.

At the time, Bluhm was dating Bruce Faust, who had filed for divorce from his wife two months before.

As part of the Fausts' divorce agreement, Bruce was given custody of their two children, 6-year-old Jared and 11-year-old Dalton, but Kimberly was given visitation rights, including whatever visitations were allowable under penalty rules.

Though she has only been in the prison since May, when a jury opted to sentence her to two life terms plus 80 years rather than give her the death penalty, Kimberly Faust had already achieved the good-prisoner status required for her to receive overnight visits from Jared.

That has not convinced Bruce Faust, though, and today he faced a hearing in Otoe County Court in Nebraska City, Neb., on a contempt of court order filed by his ex-wife's attorney for failing to comply with the terms of the divorce settlement.

At the hearing, Otoe County District Judge Randall Rehmeier ruled that the dispute between Bruce and Kimberly Faust can be settled at a civil trial. No trial date was set. Before today's hearing, Bruce Faust said he would not allow their son Jared to have overnight visits primarily because of concern for his safety.

"I don't trust her to keep him overnight by herself. I don't know the conditions, if she's guarded or what," he said. "Going out and murdering two people — when she's done that, it's not worth taking any chances with his safety."