Shelby County woman to plead guilty to federal murder-for-hire charges

Kimberly Dawn McGuffie

BIRMINGHAM, Al.
A Shelby County woman indicted earlier this year by a federal grand jury for conspiring in a 2009 murder-for-hire plot against her ex-husband plans to plead guilty to charges this week, according to federal court records.

Kimberly Dawn McGuffie, of Calera, is to plead guilty in a hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday before U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon.

Kallon set the hearing after being notified McGuffie wanted a hearing to be held for the purpose of her changing her plea, according to the judge's order setting the hearing.

McGuffie and her mother, Barbara Louise Patterson, of Columbiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit murder for hire. McGuffie also was indicted with the underlying offense of murder for hire.

According to the indictment, McGuffie promised to pay a man $1,000 to kill her former spouse.

According to the indictment, Patterson and McGuffie devised a plan to hire someone to kill McGuffie's ex-husband with a poison cocktail of prescription medication supplied, in part, by Patterson.

McGuffie and Patterson were charged in state court after their arrests in 2009, but Shelby County District Attorney officials have said that if federal officials were successful in their prosecution of the two women that they likely wouldn't pursue the state charges.

McGuffie and her husband were married in 1994 and separated in April 2007. Their divorce was finalized in February 2008. The couple have two children.