Moments after admitting to a Coeur d'Alene judge he plotted to have his wife killed, Kenneth Pearson turned and flashed her a smile.
Michelle Pearson returned the smile as her husband was led back to his jail cell on Monday.Kenneth Pearson and co-defendant Grace Dickinson pleaded guilty to amended charges of soliciting to commit first-degree murder.
The crime carries half the penalties of the original charge of conspiring to commit murder, but each defendant still faces up to 15 years in prison.
Following the hearing, Dickinson walked over to Deputy Prosecutor Brian Watkins and shook his hand. "Thank you," she told him.
Judge Craig Kosonen set sentencing for Sept. 16.
Pearson and Dickinson have been in jail since they were arrested April 6 while meeting with a prospective hit man in a Coeur d'Alene parking lot.
Michelle Pearson, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, has attended every court hearing and is aided by an interpreter. She still wears her wedding ring, and jail sources said she frequently visits her husband.
A former Seattle Crips gang member now living in Coeur d'Alene testified in May he was offered $3,500 by Dickinson and Pearson to kill Mrs. Pearson. It was to take place at the couple's Spokane, Wash., home.
According to police reports, Pearson wanted to end his troubled marriage and collect a $100,000 life insurance policy on his wife.
Coeur d'Alene Police Lt. Don Jiran testified Dickinson told him she and Pearson might become more intimately involved after his wife was killed. However, Kenneth Pearson said there would be no serious relationship.
"It seemed to me this was an extreme end to take care of a (marital) matter," Jiran said.