PROVO -- A pharmacist who said his wife once "made me feel like I was a prince to a princess" allegedly hired a police officer posing as a hit man to kill the woman for a cash and drugs, according to court documents.
Utah County sheriff's detectives booked Jay Alan Roach, 40, Spanish Fork, into the Utah County Jail Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder and distribution of a controlled substance.Fourth District Judge Donald L. Eyre Jr. set bail Friday at $100,000 cash only. Roach is scheduled to make a felony first appearance Thursday.
Charges have not been filed.
Roach conspired to have an undercover officer cause an accident that would result in the death of Lorraine Roach and stated that he did not want to be connected to her death, according to a probable cause statement filed in 4th District Court.
"He just wanted it to look like it was an accident. He was concerned about being a prime suspect," said sheriff's detective Sgt. Jerry Monson.
Roach, who is in the midst of a lengthy and messy divorce, intended to spend the weekend with his children to provide a cover story and distance himself from any police investigation, the probable cause statement said.
The "hit man" was to be paid $6,000 for the killing. An undercover officer received a down payment of 100 Lortab pills, a prescription pain killer, valued at $1,000 on the street, and was to receive $5,000 in cash later, according to court documents. Monson said Roach works as a head pharmacist at a Smith's Food and Drug Center pharmacy in Provo.
"He was a broken man. He was at the end of his rope. Desperate,"
Monson said.
Roach believed he had entered the ideal union when he married in May 1982.
"I found a very beautiful woman in 1981 who made me feel like I was a prince to a princess. She had as many talents as my mother whom I thought was nearly perfect, and she seemed to love and adore me as much as I loved her," he wrote in a court statement. The Roaches have four children ages 14 to 6.
The couple, who lived in the rural farming community of Palmyra near Spanish Fork, started having problems about 15 years into the marriage. Roach, in his statement, attributes the breakup to an affair, among other reasons.
Lorraine Roach, 38, filed for divorce from her husband of 17 years in March 1998, court records show. The case file is filled with numerous documents regarding child custody disputes and delinquent child support payments. The divorce has not been finalized. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Telephone calls to the Roaches' home were not returned.
Authorities learned about the alleged murder-for-hire plot through an informant several weeks ago, Monson said, and informed Lorraine Roach for her own protection.