Wife Convicted of Hiring Hit Man for Husband
Jan. 28, 2003 -- 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.
OFFICER TIMOTHY KAUFMANN: Do you want him dead in any particular way? You want the remains?
SHARON VOIT: I don't want to see him again.
KAUFMANN: OK.
VOIT: I don't care. I don't care.
KAUFMANN: Well, some people have particulars on how they want them dead.
VOIT: No.
KAUFMANN: You don't have any. OK, it'll be robbery. He'll be taken out of state.
Sharon Voit took a break from the meeting to go the bank and get a down payment on the $7,000 fee. She returned, gave Kaufmann $600, and continued the conversation.
KAUFFMANN: I won't tell you when I'll kill him. That way it's more of a shock for you, OK? You tell me right now.
VOIT: You know, part of me wants him to get help but it's not gonna happen. I have to face it.
Sharon Voit then gave the officer posing as a hit man her husband's car keys, his picture, and described his daily routine.
More to the Story?
Despite the evidence, her lawyers and family say the tapes don't tell the whole story.
Voit's lawyers say years of abusive behavior by her husband had made Sharon Voit emotionally vulnerable.
Police records document only one allegation of physical abuse — back in 1995. Sharon Voit did not press charges, and the couple went into counseling.
Sharon Voit's family and attorneys say the abuse was mostly psychological.
"Now, I don't believe my sister ever wanted to kill her husband," said Hank Witek, Sharon Voit's brother. "I don't know what state of mind my sister was in when she met this person in the car. But I believe her thought process was so confused that her ability to make logical decisions as you and I would, was, was impaired."
But the judge in the case refused to allow a defense psychiatrist to testify. Defense attorney Rick Halprin said an appeal will be filed.
"We were not permitted to present the psychiatric evidence, which would have explained in part what was intended [on] the tape and actually what was on the tape," Halprin said. "At the very end of the second tape — it is left with the undercover agent saying 'I'll call you and you can say yes or no'. She never got the chance to fulfill that promise because she was arrested as soon as he stepped out of the car."
No Battered Woman Defense
Though Sharon Voit's attorneys were hoping to present a battered woman syndrome defense, a judge prohibited that, and any allegation of spouse abuse, which meant the 1995 police report was suppressed. That ruling was fair, Baker, the prosecutor said.
"The court ruled — and I think correctly — that this trial was not about litigating the marriage of Sharon and Kerry Voit, but about what happened in that parking lot in March of 2000," Baker said. "The court simply wasn't going to engage in litigating what happened five years before she was hiring a hit man."
It was more important that the jury know about her soliciting other friends' help, that she had an affair and gathered money, pictures and keys for a hit man, Baker said.
Many might wonder why Sharon Voit didn't just file for divorce. Halperin said she tried, and failed.
"She filed for divorce two times and he talked her out of it twice," Halprin said. "She was in the process of seeking a divorce for the third time when all of this occurred. So what you are talking about it a 15-minute episode in a parking lot, as juxtaposed with a history of physical and emotional and economic abuse that went on for 27 years."
The couple's four children have been hit hard by what happened.
"The oldest daughter is very close to her mother," Halprin said. "The twins are living with their father and as you say, it is a very strained and difficult circumstance for these children."