32: If Looks Could Kill: The Murder-For-Hire Case of Tara Lambert

I've been wanting this for a while and you're like, "Go on, you know how much I was caught?" I'm a community. Whatever happened or whenever it's been happened, I just want it on a weekend when the girls are with me obviously. I mean, what do you want, don't we hurt? Oh my god, just put her in a chopper, like one of those lumberjacks chopper things. It was. All right, sound good. On July 28th, 2015, police officers in Circleville, Ohio were closing in around a woman who was pushing a shopping cart full of dog food through a Walmart parking lot. They were shouting commands, telling her to put her hands up, you know, put your hands up where I can see them, all sorts of things. Now just moments earlier, 32-year-old Tara Lambert had been doing something completely ordinary, just out running errands. But then suddenly that normal afternoon had turned into something else entirely. Tara was now being arrested, and the charge wasn't something minor either. It wasn't shoplifting or some sort of misunderstanding in the parking lot, a fender bender gone wrong, and what really stood out to the investigators in that moment was Tara's reaction to all of this. Because as they're yelling these commands to her, as she's just pushing the shopping cart of dog food around, she wasn't panicking, she wasn't begging the officers to allow her to explain what was happening, she wasn't insisting that they had the wrong person. She was just calm, almost too calm. She barely even reacted when they told her at the charge that they were arresting her for, which was conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. But as it turned out, Tara already knew exactly why they were there. Because behind the life that everyone thought that she had, the reality was, she had been keeping a very big secret. And once that secret started to unravel, it would shock not only the residents of Circle Bill Ohio, but people all across the country. Hey guys, I'm Annie Elise, smash that like button, hit the subscribe button right now, go do it. This is 10 to life, and let's jump right in. Now to understand how something like this ever even happens, we do need to pull back for a second and look at who Tara Lambert was or at least who people believed that she was. From the outside looking in, Tara seemed to have the kind of life that a lot of people would be jealous of. She had what looked to be a perfect marriage with her husband, Brandon Lambert. And through Brandon, she had two step daughters, Aspen and Kirsten. Tara had been with Brandon since the girls were babies, so it wasn't like she just came into their lives later on. She had really been there for the entire thing. She had to watch them grow up, become teenagers, and they were a very close family unit. And I have to say, honestly, for a lot of step moms, that's the dream, right? Being a part of the kid's lives from the very beginning, watching them change, mature, become people, you know, in their own right. Tara also had a very solid career working for the American Heart Association. And when she wasn't doing her 9-5 job, she had side hustles too. Everything from cleaning houses to flipping homes, you name it. She just kept busy. She kept her life full, full of love, family work. And she was the kind of person too that people generally liked. She was personable, talkative, easy to get along with. And then you also layer on the fact that Tara was drop dead gorgeous, stunning. And look, looks obviously are not everything, but I think we also need to be a little bit honest. Sometimes they definitely help you meet the right person, get in the right room, have the right conversations, things like that. And Tara seemed to have it all. She had long blonde hair, perfectly manicured nails, clear, beautiful, glowing skin, she looked like a model. And she actually had even been a model before. Her modeling work had now slowed down in the recent years with age, but that didn't mean that Tara had stopped presenting herself that way. No matter where she went, her hair was done, her makeup was done. She usually had the latest handbag on her arm. I mean, just dressed to the nines all the time. So in a lot of ways, Tara was kind of seen as this model turned housewife. And she knew that whenever she walked around Circleville, Ohio, people noticed her. And that's exactly why what happened on July 28, 2015, felt so out of place to everyone who knew her. As I said, that day had started off like any other regular day. Tara was at Walmart. She was picking up a few things for the house, dog food, you know, running errands. But as soon as she walked out, police surrounded her within minutes, she was in handcuffs because the life that everybody thought that she had, it wasn't quite as perfect as it seemed. Now for a lot of people, blended families can really be a blessing. If things go well, the parents and the step parents all get along. Everybody focuses on the kids. You co-parent, you work together, you're a team, but that wasn't what was happening here. You see, before Tara ever came into the picture, Brandon had been married to a woman named Kelly. Now Brandon and Kelly had Aspen and Kirsten together, but eventually their marriage ended and they went their separate ways. And even though the relationship didn't last, both of them made it clear that their daughters would always come first. So not long after their split, both of them started new relationships. Brandon began dating Tara and Kelly started seeing a man named Sean Cook. At first, Brandon and Kelly worked out a custody schedule that seemed fair. They would shuffle back and forth and it would work out, you know. They had the time divided and the set schedules, but over time, that agreement, it just became harder and harder to maintain. And this wasn't just a few disagreements over the course of a couple of months. This turned into an ongoing custody battle that stretched on for years. There were constant court dates. There were lawyers going back and forth and from what I understand, Kelly won in more time with her daughters, something that Tara specifically did not want to happen. Now the exact details of the custody fight aren't completely clear. I'm not sure if it may be started out as a 50/50 arrangement and then Kelly wanted something closer to 75/25 or if the issue was something else entirely. But I did see that some of the court violins involved scheduling visits, while others had to do with child support. So it almost seems like it was a mix of different disagreements that just kept building over time. Now what is clear though, is that they rarely agreed on anything anymore. And what's interesting is that if you were looking at things from the outside looking in, you probably wouldn't have guessed any of that. I mean, Tara and Kelly would even pose together for photos sometimes, smiling like they were close friends with one another. But behind the scenes, the relationship was completely different. I mean, number one, Tara absolutely despised Kelly. And number two, as it turns out, Tara's step-daughters didn't like her at all. When Aspen and Kirsten were younger, things seemed okay. They actually did like Tara. They didn't necessarily see her as a mother figure, but more like okay, she's another trusted adult in our lives. It's okay. They would talk to her about things that they didn't always feel comfortable saying to their dad, their thoughts, their feelings, girl things, things going on in their lives. And Tara would listen. Or at least, that's what it would seem like. She would act like she genuinely cared about what they were saying, like she was someone that they could confide in. And the girls were so little back then, they didn't really understand everything that was happening around them. But eventually, they did start noticing something. The things that they were telling Tara and confidence that she was so gracious to lend an ear on, they were somehow, these details were making their way back to their dad. And not exactly in the same way that they had been relayed to Tara. Tara would go to Brandon and repeat what the girls had told her, but then she would put a twist on it. Aspen later talked about how Tara sometimes even would frame things in a way that made it look like Kelly was the villain. Almost like whenever they would go to their mom Kelly's house, that was the source of all their problems that she was somehow behind all of this. She said, we grew up trusting her with our personal problems because we thought that she was being supportive by wanting to listen to them. In reality, she wanted to use our problems against us by telling our dad her own version of them and then turn it around to make it sound like our problems were because we had to go to their house every other weekend instead of doing what we really wanted to be doing with our time. In some cases, that was true, but most of the time, it was just something to get him worked up over. So over time, Aspen and Kyrsten started trusting Tara less and less. Even as kids, they could start putting the pieces together. They would tell Tara something in confidence, and then suddenly their dad would be upset about something that they supposedly said. Brandon would go straight to Kelly, angry about what he believed were the girls complaints. And it's a really sad dynamic, but honestly, also, it's not that uncommon in complicated divorce situations, especially when communication starts breaking down or when someone in the middle isn't acting in good faith. But according to the girls, things eventually went beyond just twisting their words. Tara started behaving in ways that felt much closer to the stereotype of an evil stepmother. Whenever the girls spent extended time at Tara and Brandon's house, they would go back to their mother Kelly's house and they would tell her all about the things that happened there. And what's interesting is that Tara seemed to have two completely different sides. On one hand, she could come across as overly invested in the girls, almost to a concerning level, almost like she wanted them all entirely to herself. For example, Tara would sometimes plan these family trips, but then at the last minute, she would tell Brandon that he couldn't come, claiming that Aspen and Kirsten had said that they didn't want him there. The girls also said that when they were out with Tara and public, whether it was at the mall or grocery store and whenever they ran into people that they knew, or even strangers, as a matter of fact, Tara would tell them to call her mom, not Tara, mom. And that made them uncomfortable. They already had a mom, it wasn't Tara. So when they asked her why she wanted them to do that, Tara claimed it was because she didn't want people to know her real name, which honestly sounds like a very strange excuse, right? And this is speculation on my part, but it seems more likely that she just didn't want people to realize that she wasn't actually their mother. But to rather think that she was the biological mother. Either way, there was this very possessive energy to it, like Tara wanted to step fully into the role of their mom, and maybe even push everyone else out of the picture. Sometimes that even seemed to include their own dad, not inviting him on trips or pushing him out the last minute, but the girls also described a much harsher side of Tara. For example, Tara openly admitted that she liked Kirsten more than Aspen. And the reason that she gave was that Aspen was more of a tomboy. She also once told Aspen that she was going to hell because her boyfriend at the time was biracial. So according to both Aspen and Kirsten, Tara would also sometimes encourage them to do things that she knew would upset their dad, Brandon, only to then immediately turn around and tell him about it afterward. It's like pitting all the family members against each other, pitting the girls against each other, thinking once the favorite, once not, threatening one that she's going to hell because of a biracial boyfriend she has, I mean, so toxic. They even said that they once caught Tara recording their conversations, something they believe that she planned to play back for Brandon, their father later, to try to get them in trouble. And the manipulation didn't stop at twisting their words or trying to turn their dad against their mom. They say that Tara created all kinds of uncomfortable and inappropriate situations while they were growing up. Aspen shared one example that really stuck with her. She had said that at one point, Tara told the entire family that she was pregnant. She even showed what appeared to be ultrasound photos to everyone. But they later learned that those photos were fake. There were also moments that crossed really uncomfortable boundaries. According to Aspen, "Tara has also told my sister and I details about the sex life between her and our dad, explaining where, how, and even the time of day it occurred. That's something we did not want to know or ever need to know." Kirsten also said that at one point Tara called the police department and made a very serious accusation. She claimed that Kelly's husband, the girl's stepdad, had forced Aspen to drink alcohol. And police actually responded to the call and began asking questions trying to figure out what had happened. According to Kirsten, once the officers looked into it, they very quickly realized that the accusation simply wasn't true. It was just all in all this incredibly uncomfortable toxic dynamic where Tara wielded a lot of power over the girls and used it in ways to manipulate everyone around her. But in Tara's mind, Kelly was the source of all of the problems. Because in Tara's line of thinking, if Kelly was gone, then the custody battles would be gone, there would be nothing to argue about, and everything would be fine. No more arguments, no more court dates, no more fighting over Aspen and Kirsten. And all of this is eventually what led Tara to finally come up with a plan to have Kelly killed. Tara wanted Kelly completely out of the picture. Which when you think about it, that raises an obvious question. How does someone even begin planning something like that? Because there's no guidebook for having your ex-husband's wife killed, right? I mean, so Tara didn't have anything to look to any sort of resources, so she just started figuring it out as she went along. The first step in her mind was hiring somebody else to do it, because Tara wasn't about to put herself directly in the middle of something like that, both metaphorically and physically. She just didn't see herself as the type of person who would get her hands dirty, or, in this case, her hands bloody. But here's the problem with all of that. It's not like hitmen advertise their services, right? You can't just scroll through Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and find somebody who is offering to contract kill. So Tara knew that she couldn't just message somebody randomly and be like, "Hey, can you kill this person for me?" She knew that she needed somebody that she could at least approach somebody who she could slowly build trust with. So that's when she decided to reach out to someone from her past. Now, Circleville is a pretty small city, so I don't know, maybe Tara felt like her options were limited, who knows, but for whatever reason, she landed on somebody that she had known back in high school. A woman named Ginny Chidell. And honestly, I have to say, this choice is a little strange. Tara and Ginny weren't best friends in high school. I mean, they knew each other, sure, but they weren't in the same friend group. They didn't hang out one-on-one. They weren't close. Which makes you wonder, if somebody is planning something as serious as murder, what do you go to someone who actually has loyalty to you, somebody that you have a history with? I mean, somebody who knows you well? But Tara didn't do that. Apparently, the only thing that Tara remembered about Ginny from high school was that she had a reputation as a kind of like, "Don't mess with me," type of girl. So that was enough for Tara to think that she was the one that she should go forward with this plan with, which when you think about that, it's kind of wild. I mean, Tara was 32 years old at this point, and Ginny was around the same age. And there's a lot of life that happens between being 16 years old and then being in your 30s. People change. People grow out of things. People move on. Just because somebody had a tough reputation in high school, it certainly doesn't mean that there's still that same person more than a decade later. And I was actually curious about it myself. So I wondered if Ginny maybe had some kind of criminal background, maybe a history of arrests or trouble with law enforcement, something, anything that might explain why Tara chose her. But from what I could find, there wasn't anything, nothing that indicated that. The only thing I could really find was that Ginny didn't come from a wealthy background and that she was living in a trailer park. But obviously that alone doesn't mean anything. Someone's character isn't defined by those things. Although, based on how Tara carried herself and this is speculation, it is possible that Tara viewed Ginny as somebody who was beneath her. But either way, Tara believed that Ginny might be the person who could help her. So she reached out to her on Facebook, and the two of them started messaging back and forth. Now at first, the conversation seemed completely normal. Tara framed it like she just wanted to reconnect, catch up, maybe even become friends again. So they started filling each other in on their lives, going back and forth. Tara talked about her marriage to Brandon. She talked about her step-dotards, and then eventually the conversation turned to Kelly. But the version of Kelly that Tara described was not accurate at all. See Tara told Ginny that Kelly was an awful person, that she was vindictive, that she was evil, that she was trying to take Brandon's kids away, and take them away from him purely out of spite. And once she laid the groundwork, Tara then decided to test Ginny. She didn't jump straight to asking her to kill somebody, nothing that direct, but instead she started with something smaller. Tara asked Ginny if she would call Kelly anonymously and threaten her. She wanted Ginny to scare Kelly so badly that she would back off from the custody fight entirely. And basically, when you kind of zoom out from this, it was like a trial run, right? Tara wanted to see whether Ginny would actually do what she asked, or if she would back out. But surprisingly, or I guess maybe unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask, Ginny went through with it. She called Kelly anonymously and threatened her. Ginny told Kelly that she needed to back off, that she needed to stop the custody battle. She needed to leave both Brandon and Tara alone, and she made it very clear what would happen if she didn't listen. Ginny told her, "You know, if you don't listen, I'm going to beat you up. I'm going to beat you up so badly that you're going to end up needing a feeding tube." But these were Kelly's kids. So Kelly didn't back down. I mean, those girls were just as much her daughters as they were Brandon's. And from everything that I could find, Tara. had it completely wrong. Kelly wasn't trying to take the girls away from Brandon entirely, she just wanted more time with them. What argument could any other mother or woman have in that right? Now by this point, it was the spring of 2015. So Aspen and Kyrsten, they weren't little kids anymore. They were teenagers. They could read the room, they could figure out what was going on, and they could pick up on the tension. They understood what was happening around them. And what they had been telling Kelly about Tara had been deeply concerning. So now when Kelly started receiving these threats from Ginny, she wasn't about to just step back and give up time with her daughters, especially not when she was hearing these kinds of stories about what was happening at Tara and Brandon's house. So then a few months after that anonymous phone call, they found themselves back in court again, dealing with more custody battles. And that's when Tara finally decided she was done waiting. She had hoped that these threats they might have been enough to scare Kelly off or scare her enough to back off, but clearly that hadn't worked. Empty threats were not solving Tara's problem. So Tara reached out to Ginny again. This time, though, Tara was very careful about how she phrased things. She didn't directly say that she wanted Kelly killed, she didn't even ask Ginny outright if she knew someone who could do it. Instead, Tara asked if Ginny knew anyone who could, quote, "take care of her problem." Which Ginny, I mean, she knew exactly what that meant. The problem was Kelly. And according to Ginny, she did know somebody who could handle it, but for a price. Ginny told Tara that it would cost $1,000, which, when you think about it, $1,000 is shockingly low for something like that, right? But Tara didn't hesitate. She said $1,000? Sure, that's a steal. Let's do it. So the planning began moving forward. Ginny didn't give Tara many details about the person who was supposedly going to carry this crime out. And honestly, it would have been pretty reckless to put it all out there in, you know, a message on Facebook messenger. But instead, Ginny told Tara that she needed to meet the man in person. She gave Tara a date, a time, and a location where they could just sit down and they could talk through everything. Every request, every detail, face to face. The meeting place was scheduled to be at a nearby KFC. Ginny told Tara the makin' model of the car that the man would be driving and instructed her to simply just get in the car when she arrived so that the two of them could talk. So on June 28, 2015, Tara told Brandon she had some errands to run. She had some shopping to do. But instead of going on those errands, she drove directly to the KFC parking lot. And when she pulled in, she saw the car that Ginny had described. It was just sitting there, waiting for her. So she got out of her own car and approached the driver's side like it was a completely normal interaction, almost like she had done it a hundred times before. Then she opened the door, slid into the front seat, and she made herself comfortable. Within moments, she handed this man an envelope, a down payment of sorts for Kelly's murder. Now lucky for us, this entire thing, it was being recorded. It's a D&D, this is Tara. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. What's going on with you? I hear you got a problem. I got a problem for seven years. Really? Seven, damn. Yeah, and it's gotten to the point where I mean, she knows I've been wanting this for a while. And I need her way gone in the community. So, okay, she lives in Lucasville. Okay. Okay. And when you, it's on State Route 104 and there's nothing across the street, it's like wood in a river. Right? And if you pull in a driveway, there's like a nice house to the right. It's like brown as a pool. And that is her mother-in-law. And then on down to the left, you can still see it plain as day from the driveway. But that is her trailer. So my thing is, like it's going to be weird if something happens to just her trailer when there's a nice house, like right next door. If it's going to happen on her house, you know? Okay. And then I want whatever happens or whenever it's going to happen, I just want it on a weekend when the girls are with me, obviously, that helps my alibi and keeps them away from all of them. Which is every other weekend. This coming weekend? Yes. Yes. So then they'll be back down Lucasville the following. Right. And then back up here. And we never miss a weekend. So if you start from this weekend, whatever we can do, you want to do it. So, and I have her picture. It's a lovely information she's wearing. Okay. I need her. I mean, what do you want? Don't hurt? Oh my god. Just put her in a chopper. Like, like, one of those lumberjack chopper things. What? I don't care. A lumberjack chopper. Oh, I'm just going to, like, that's how much I hate her though. Um, I don't know. Whatever you. You want me to just walk up and cap her? If something else is going on, like, in the, in the area, I don't, I don't know. What do you think? I don't know. Like, we were kind of thinking of like a home invasion going wrong. But in, like, they do all slaughter. They live in this place for free off of his mom. And they always have, like, all this expensive stuff. And they, they're walking around flaunting it and talking about how they got no bills and have cash and, like, TVs and stuff in there. They got cash in the place? Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm going to be so excited. I just can't even tell you. I'm so happy about this. I know that they're glad. But, oh, even my girls, I think if they could pay people to do this, they probably would. They hate her so bad. Now there is a lot to unpack in those clips. At one point, Tara refers to Aspen and Kirsten as her girls. At another point, she jokes about Kelly being thrown into a wood shipper, which, to be fair, I will say, she does say that she's joking. But honestly, listening to it doesn't really sound like she would have a problem with it if the guy had said that that was some sort of workable option. And what really stands out to me is how prepared Tara seemed when she walked into that meeting. She already knew exactly what she wanted. She explained that she wanted Kelly's death to look like an accident. She talked about how she could create an alibi for herself. And she just was cool, common collected. I mean, in other words, she had already thought through all of the logistics. And throughout the conversation, Tara is just completely relaxed. She's not nervous. She's not second-guessing herself. There's no sign that she's regretting what she's asking for. And there's definitely no sign of remorse. But what Tara didn't realize, what she couldn't have known in that moment, was that this hitman that she had just handed this money to and these instructions to, he wasn't a hitman at all. He was an undercover police officer. Ginny had turned Tara in. Now, honestly, when you think about it, it actually makes sense, right? Tara had said at herself. Ginny had a reputation as this like don't mess with me type of girl. But Tara clearly misunderstood with that meant. Because Ginny wasn't the kind of person who was going to risk going to prison for someone that she hadn't even talked to in years. She didn't want to get involved with that. And later on, Ginny explained that she believed that Tara chose her simply because of stereotypes. In Ginny's view, Tara saw her as the girl from the trailer park. Someone who must not have morals, someone who wouldn't value human life the same way she did. So the moment that Tara started talking about wanting someone to take care of Kelly, Ginny went straight to the police. And that's when the investigator started putting their own plan together. Police coached Ginny on exactly what to say to Tara moving forward. And Tara fell for all of it, hook, line, sinker. In fact, one of their phone conversations about the supposed hitman was even recorded. Well, I have somebody that might be able to help you out. Do you know how much I just love that? Yeah. Um, I just need to know like how much you got. Like what do you think is a good amount to say? Honestly, I don't know. I mean, you know, it just depends on what you're wanting done. Right. So I mean, if you're wanting to go all the way, I mean, he's not going to charge you outrageous, but he's probably one a little more. Oh, I mean, yeah. Um, girl, the bottom line is if we're only going to hurt her, then I want her to be hurt like more person. If we want to go all the way, then I want it to look like an accident, obviously, because of what I've come through with her. Yeah. I would be like first suspect. I'm sure. I don't know. We'll just talk to him. You're a pretty girl. He might give you a discount. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right? What's her next? Well, I just love my buddy's house. Probably about a half hour ago. He's wanting to know if you want to meet tomorrow. Okay. Like what time? Um, around five. okay he doesn't want to do launch he said because of people over here in and cameras and like that so he told me to see if you wanted to meet maybe in Walmart's parking lot towards the back okay you can just happen our car will pull up besides you need to hop in our car he just doesn't want anybody to over here and he said that stupid to go to launch he said if someone over here is you your okay he said if you do 500 tomorrow you got to give him all her information you know you can deal with that when you get that when you get in the car and then after it's done when you know that it's done he wants the other 500 okay got work for you and the meeting at KFC it was all part of the set up when Tera arrived Ginny was already there with the undercover officer who was posing as the hitman Ginny got out of the car when Tera pulled up Tera hugged her and then Tara got in the back seat where she was sitting directly in front of the hidden camera now of course the undercover officer didn't openly say that he was a hitman he was playing the role very carefully letting Tera do the talking the goal was to get her to explain exactly what she wanted done in her own words while everything was being recorded of course and Tera did exactly that she talked openly about wanting Kelly killed and at one point she even said that she wouldn't mind if Kelly's husband was killed as well how does walk straight up she heard in the grill and he said that dude is going all the time he does but they're locked up in a safe and like covered with a bunch of like closes up he can't get to that like fast and with the kids in there he always has it locked up he would not be able to get to that unlock it fast enough to come back out he can go to if he starts to struggle or if he ends up being there if the red truck is there he's there so you know all those then again the band comes in their van and picks him up so I don't I can't say that so if he's there you want him to go to yeah I mean I really don't mind I mean it's gonna be easier for all of us to not us but all it like me and my husband and everyone not to be pinpointed at all if he's gone because no one else knows me no one knows my business they wouldn't be like this has to do with Tera this has to happen to you there you know what I mean okay so you're maybe thinking two weeks whatever two to four weeks whatever and then and I can I don't know how that I can get you more cash before you even do it like whatever you want it's just today Tera had my card and I don't have time to go to Worlington and get that great stuff all right can you think of anything else that you would need to know which of course you could do her to get to me or whatever but what all right sound good hey I mean clearly from this clip and if you're listening to the audio version of this you're gonna need to pop over to YouTube after this and watch the video but clearly from this clip she is very happy like nobody's been like you to man like great and like hopping out of the car happy she's excited so from Tera's perspective everything had just fallen into place perfectly in her mind the problem that she had been dealing with four years was about to disappear but what she didn't realize was that about 15 minutes later she would be sitting in the back of a different car a police car because she had just paid an undercover officer to commit murder now after her arrest Tera was taken to the police station and she was interrogated and when those interrogation clips were later released oh my god they quickly spread because Tera's demeanor is honestly pretty shocking she doesn't look scared she doesn't seem overwhelmed and she definitely doesn't seem remorseful I mean usually when someone gets caught that confidence it starts to fall apart pretty quickly or at least get chipped away at but Tera almost seemed like she thought that she was untouchable now before getting too deep into the interrogation itself there is one moment that really stood out when the detectives first sat down and explained the situation to Tera her reaction was a hummus unbelievable it kind of reminds me of legally blonde like what like it's hard like am I really under arrest like just so unbelievable now from the beginning of the interrogation Tera insists that she is innocent at least partially she won't admit that she wanted Kelly killed but she also doesn't exactly try to present herself as completely uninvolved either one of the most interesting parts of the interrogation is the way that Tera suddenly starts acting like she doesn't understand basic things almost like she's trying to play that she's incompetent and people sometimes we'll call it weaponized incompetence take a listen if you ever hear the term bust a cat you hear the term that you know what the cat means you know what that means bust a cat yeah no but a cat yeah yeah like a cat like a cat the cat is in a shell okay meaning shoot a death bust a cat it's a flying street now I know it's just flying for shooting someone and he even said it's something about it so she has to stop communicating just shut her mouth and he said oh just after the grill and this is interesting because during the under cover meeting she clearly understood the language that was being used she followed the conversation perfectly she gave instructions but now suddenly during the interrogation she claims that she didn't realize that quote "busting Kelly in the cap" meant shooting her not punching her in the face which honestly I have to say it is a pretty strange argument to try to make at this point in time right now when the interrogator started applying a little bit more pressure Tera's strategy started shifting instead of denying everything outright she began trying to reframe the entire situation suddenly she was claiming that the reason that she met with that hitman in the first place was because she was afraid for her own life I can show you some calls I can show you the messages where she is talking about how she can have Kelly meet up or something of the nature to scare her and then she talks to this guy and then I can show you the messages that she says you can't back out of it you need to bring some money this guy is no joke you need to go to the bank how much can you bring right now and I'm like what am I supposed to do like if this guy is a killer or you know he's gonna be in her ass what is he gonna do to me if I don't follow through with beating her up now it's pretty unbelievable is that even while the detectives were explaining that they had the entire meeting on camera that they knew exactly what she had said and done Tera was still sitting there talking terribly about Kelly which you would think that if you were trying to convince investigators that you were innocent and that you had nothing to do with this you'd probably be on your best behavior but instead Tera just kept digging herself deeper and deeper into the hole now after she made that comment the detective actually just sat there for a moment in silence almost like he was letting what she had said sink in and honestly watching that moment back it is kind of wild remember one of the things that Tera's step-daughters have said about her is that she was extremely manipulative and very very good at it according to them Tera had a way of taking almost any situation or anything that someone said and twisting it until it fit the story that she wanted people to believe and I have to say watching that in interrogation footage it really does look like that's exactly what's happening and you will hear stuff about me her offering All the way and you know, there's a point where I say yes, and then there's the point where I say no, and then You know, she was just finally like will talk to him. You talk to him. That's correct. Yeah, and I did And I told you she's been making us miserable. I said for seven years but It's really been about the year that I mean She's been making bread and then they're over 15 years but it's It's it that it was not the final I heard it for me and I swear on that. Who knows? There's something else I wanted to tell you I Don't know But you'll definitely hear that you said he's gonna beat her up and he's gonna make it look like they're robbery just like she got in the way Robbery Yeah Burlery, I don't remember All right, well, we'll verify exactly what was that You'll hear it. Well, yeah, well, but you're in the ground. The thing is that You know the only thing is at this point is to be truthful. I mean, it's I said everything's recorded It is what it is So we just have to go from there. We do know why. I mean, you know, obviously she is But I don't want her dead. I still don't want her dead But I have thought about I mean when someone offers you I mean Firm it and it's kind of a nice thought The only reason I didn't go because I would have had to give like a bunch more To do that right away If you would want it like a thousand right now to do it like right now and You know, the girls are what got me from just stick with the burglary just stick with that I think they even said like you should probably like Break the door or something of the neighbor which is the mother and also show that you weren't just targeting a trailer Now because we all heard the recordings between Tara and this supposed Hitman what she was asking for really wasn't ambiguous. There wasn't much room for interpretation She was very clear about what she wanted. She wanted Kelly dead not beaten up not scared Killed and honestly, I don't even know how she could try and explain away the whole Woodchipper joke right if her real intention had only been for Kelly to get roughed up a little bit that explanation It just doesn't really hold up. But Tara seemed convinced that she could talk her way out of the situation The same way that she may have been used to talking her way out of so many other problems in her life The only question now was whether or not it was going to work and the answer It might surprise you because this whole situation was about to get a lot of attention and strangely enough a lot of that Attention had less to do with the charges themselves and more to do with something else entirely A skin tight black and white dress and a big question that people started debating was was justice actually served So as we know all of this was unfolding during the summer of 2015 Now by January of 2016 Tara was sitting in a courtroom on trial for two counts of conspiracy to commit murder By that point the case had already started going viral online However, once the trial began the media attention. It just you know amplified exploded even more When Tara's trial began headlines started appearing almost Immediately phrases like dress to kill femme fatale. I mean these kinds of things these click-bitty little Words and phrases were everywhere because if there was a one thing that Tara seemed determined to do It was to maintain the same image that she always had every day She showed up to court wearing very tight stylish dresses high heels hair and makeup done just fully dressed to the 9's like always She almost always also had her very large coach purse with her which coaches a designer and To be clear the case wasn't going viral because people universally hated her or were shocked that she could be capable of something like this I mean in a strange way it went viral because there was this almost kind of Accination or even admiration surrounding her Mostly because she was blonde attractive and fit a certain image that people didn't associate with somebody accused of plotting murder So it was almost like people couldn't reconcile the two things They saw this beautiful blonde bombshell and it was like they were captivated by her polarized by her She couldn't possibly be capable of doing the things that she's accused of now on one particular day during the trial Tara wore a very tight black and white dress that ended up getting an incredible amount of attention online The style was very much that of 2015 2016 but once the photos of her in court were released people became obsessed with it So much so that the dress actually sold out everywhere and when you think about it that is pretty bizarre I mean today we see influencers post links to outfits. They sell out instantly sure But those people are influencers. They're not on trial for a new conspiracy to commit murder She was a woman who was on trial for trying to have her husband's ex-wife and potentially her new husband killed Yet somehow in this strange way she was influencing people from inside a courtroom and Speaking of public perception There's also something that Tara actually said to the media during her trial that really stood out At one point she complained that the media was portraying her as what she described as a quote brainless, hurtless, ex-model that's what she said bothered her Not the fact that she was on trial for wanting two people dead not the seriousness of the charges None of that no what she seemed most concerned about was that people thought that she was dumb and an ex-model Now during the trial Tara actually chose to testify in her own defense which from a legal standpoint is always a pretty big gamble And in her testimony she tried to explain away some of the things that had come up during the investigation Including the comment that she made about putting Kelly in a woodchipper According to Tara she was only kidding which again Probably wasn't the strongest argument that her defense team could have hoped for in all of this Her defense team even brought in a psychologist to testify on her behalf and According to that psychologist Tara was quote Developmentally damaged and this was allegedly because she drank heavily and had abused prescription medications Which honestly, I mean reading through everything about this trial It's kind of hard not to feel like the defense was a little bit of a mess with it their strategy Because the way that things unfolded in court they didn't exactly work in her favor In the end the jury deliberated for just 42 minutes, which might actually be one of the shortest deliberations that we have ever talked about on this podcast They did acquit her on the charge relating to Kelly's husband Sean But when it came to the charge involving Kelly They found her guilty a first-degree conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and when the verdict was read Tara didn't break down in tears. She didn't collapse to the ground or start shouting that they had made a mistake Instead, she just quietly muttered under her breath the word bullshit But that wasn't actually the first thing that she set out loud in the courtroom the first words that she spoke were What happens to my purse which is kind of mind-boggling but also tells you where her brain is at during all this if the first words You say where's my purse and then a bullshit or they just think I'm an ex model like are you even realizing the severity of what's going on here? Now Kelly and Sean said that they were relieved that Tara had at least been found guilty of one of the charges But Tara originally had been facing up to 22 years in prison if she had been convicted on both counts So even before the sentencing Kelly and Sean knew that one less conviction it meant a shorter potential sentence So while they were glad that there were at least some consequences They also made it clear that they weren't completely satisfied with the outcome And honestly that reaction it makes a lot of sense with the verdict relief relief Yeah, um I mean of course we wish it would have went all the way but At least the justice system would get to serve some of its most of its purpose I mean we're hoping that she'll stay off the street as long as possible Now it's in the judge's hand to Hopefully make it a stiff penalty It's made us more aware of our surroundings We're living in evil world. I mean she got caught the next person why not so I mean - And it could be a real home invasion we're prepared now. I mean, we look for signs. - Yeah. - Our kids are prepared? - The kids are prepared. I mean, we've got an action plan for the most important. I'm saying it's like, everything had to change. We turned into basically, I feel like a military family at this point. - Oh, from somebody that claimed they lived, my girls. - Right. - Our girls. - If it would have been possible for her to get sentenced for both charges for 22 years, the max, we just had 22 years in my eyes of safety. So right now, I don't think it's over. Well, we always think about it with the day she gets out. Absolutely. I don't know that it will take the till the day she gets out. I don't know how many people she can be to people while she's gone. She's had plenty of planning over the last six, seven months too. So who knows, we just have to be alert and be aware of our surroundings and be prepared, I guess. - About a month later, Tara was back in court for her sentencing. And this time, the image was very different from the one that people had been seeing during the trial. Instead of designer dresses and heels, Tara was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. She also had chains, bright orange crocs. I mean, talk about a fall from grace. And during the hearing, she asked the judge to show her mercy. She even read a statement apologizing to the people that she said she had hurt with her actions. Now, whether that apology was sincere or not, that's up for people to decide. Now, the reason I personally question how genuine this all was is because of what happened immediately afterward. Right after delivering this long apology, explaining how her mental health struggles had caused everything to spiral out of control, Tara started arguing with the judge. As in the same judge, she had just been asking for mercy from. This was also the same judge who was about to decide how long she was going to spend in prison. - I don't know how to do except the decision of the jury. Dr. Bronx hasn't liked me, that I shouldn't have suffered from mental illnesses. As she goes into counseling, it's how we turn this way. I've reflected a great deal of order of placing myself in Kelly and her family's frame of mind. And I have been on the duty very much before the meeting and my actions have caused them. Relation, and your kids, I am truly sorry for the harm that my actions have caused. I never intended for the situation to get so out of control, but it did, and I do accept full responsibility for it. I've used every resource available to me to get mental and spiritual counseling in them so that I can find a way to forgive myself. But even more in praise day, that by some miracle God and the future, your family can forgive me for my ugly saying is hateful act. But I do realize that I should invest in mental health as you see here, and it's how it ends that it would be unfortunate for her to see us in prison with me in control. It would not help her if I'd given back to the future if I had a time to see if I would give back in time and this obviously would never happen. But again, I can only afford a group that I'd not be monster portrayed in this tribe. I totally underestimated the extent of my mental health issues and the impact they've caused on what is around me. Although I have, and had started family in the sea progress, I allow for you to get better faith in the product and a situation that's inspired by control. The judge ultimately sentenced Tara to seven years in prison and not long after her arrest, Brandon filed for divorce. Now, the timing isn't totally clear on that, whether it happened before the trial or afterward, but it was sometime after Tara had been taken into custody. And according to what has been shared online publicly, once Tara was out of the picture and sitting in jail, Brandon finally began going to counseling with Aspen and Kirsten, something that they had really needed for quite some time. But when those counseling sessions first started, Brandon and Tara were still technically married. They were still together. But by that point, the girls already knew that Tara had tried to kill their mother or have her killed rather. So they gave their dad an ultimatum. And Kirsten later described that very moment in a victim impact statement. She said, "After she was arrested, my sister and I had to go to counseling with our dad to try to build the broken untrusted relationship that Tara had created between us. We told our father, us or Tara, and he chose us and filed for divorce. We were all terrified that she would soon figure out that he was leaving her. We had to watch our backs everywhere we went in case she had a backup plan that no one knew about. Those days were some of the most terrifying days of our lives. There are many times that we still get scared, especially when we're alone." So in 2016, Tara began serving that seven-year sentence. It wasn't the outcome that Kelly and her family had hoped for, but still seven years is a significant amount of time. But the story didn't end there. Because just one year later, in 2017, Tara hired a new lawyer and she filed an appeal. The argument behind the appeal was that the prosecutor had made an error in the language that was used in the indictment. And in a really shocking turn of events, the Ohio Fourth District Court of Appeals agreed. They overturned her conviction. The judge actually wrote that the case had been, quote, "fatally flawed." And I remember reading that and thinking like, "Wait, what?" Now instead of just laying low after getting a Hail Mary like that, which is honestly what probably most people should or would have done, Tara started doing interviews. Almost like it was a mini-press tour. It really seemed like she didn't mind the attention. None of it, whether it was good or bad. And then just like that, she was released. After everything that Kelly and her family had been through, Tara was suddenly back out in the world. But then, the following year, in 2018, she was re-indicted. But when she appeared in court this time, she looked like a totally different person from the woman that people remembered from the first trial. And by this point, I don't even know how. But Tara was remarried, going by a completely different name and even more than that. Tara was pregnant now, expecting her first biological child. Now, when I first read that part of this case, I genuinely couldn't believe it. Because this was someone who had literally been caught on camera trying to hire a hitman. And somehow, not long after that, she had gotten married and started a new family. Which it makes me wonder how someone could trust her, right? And I'm not saying anything about her new husband personally. Okay, it's not trying to shade him. But if there's one thing that almost everyone who knew Tara seemed to agree on, it was that she was extremely manipulative. That's something people in her life had been saying for years. So I mean, I don't know, it's not hard to imagine that she could have told a very different version of the story when she met this new husband, maybe even portraying herself as the victim. Now this time, instead of going through another long trial, Tara eventually accepted a plea deal. She pleaded guilty. And this time, she was sentenced to five years with credit for time already served. Which this meant that by 2022, Tara was a free woman. Which just put that into perspective for a minute, okay? She had originally been facing up to 22 years in prison. And in the end, she served about four. And in one of the more surprising twists in this story, two days before she was scheduled to return to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence, Tara appeared on the Dr. Phil show. Now at that point, you would think that someone might spend those last days quietly with their family, their new husband, or their close friends. But instead, Tara was sitting in a TV studio, telling her side of the story. And during that episode, I have to say, Dr. Phil actually seemed pretty sympathetic toward her. I can't include clips here because of copyright, but at one point, he told her, "You're not a killer, Tara. I know killers. You're not a killer." Which is a very interesting statement, considering that she had been caught on camera, trying to hire someone to kill two people. Throughout the episode, Tara apologized to Kelly and to the other people who had been affected by everything that she orchestrated and that had happened. She even said that she understood why Aspen and Kirsten viewed her as evil, and that she might feel the same way if she were in their position. But to a lot of the people watching this segment, the apology still didn't seem or feel genuine. And that's exactly what Kelly said when she later appeared on the show herself in a separate interview. And in what was kind of, honestly, a mic drop moment for Kelly, Kelly ended that interview by saying, "She never did fool me. She tried to manipulate me. It didn't work. I just hope that her current family and everyone involved with her are really careful of being around her because she will pull them in and do the same thing to them." And when you step back and you look at everything that has happened in this case, it's honestly pretty unsettling because someone planned a murder. They paid money to have it carried out. the only reason that those people are still alive today is because the person that they hired turned out to be an undercover officer and that someone spoke up, Ginny, namely. Yet in the end, Tara served about four years in prison. And it's hard not to think about how different this story could have been if that meeting at KFC had gone a different way, right? It's even harder not to imagine the kind of fear that Kelly and her family may still live with because of this. Because once you know that somebody was willing to go that far and try to end your life, I mean, that fear, it doesn't just disappear overnight. But I got to give props to Ginny because had she not spoken up and said something, or if she had just said I'm not interested, find someone else, this could have had a very real different ending. But I'm curious, what do you think about the prison sentence? Do you think that that was enough? Do you think that she'll re-offend in the future? Maybe now it's just giving her more time to be smarter, to plan better, right? I don't know. This whole case, especially the footage, it just does not set right with me. So, again, if you're listening to the audio version of this, definitely go over to my YouTube page, Annie Elise. Watch the video version so you can see those clips for yourself, not only the interrogation, but the hidden camera footage. It's very interesting. It is a wild one. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of 10 to life. I appreciate it. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Don't forget, give this video a quick like on your way out, subscribe if you haven't done so already, and if you're listening to the podcast version, make sure that you are following the podcast so you don't miss new episodes. Between both true crime shows and both true crime podcasts, seriously, and 10 to life, I drop new episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday. So, make sure that you're subscribed to both and following both on the podcast so that you don't miss any of those. All right, until the next one. Stay safe. Bye.