NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say a Massachusetts woman and her husband were involved in a murder-for-hire plot to kill the victim in his pending rape case.
Fifty-year-old Cynthia Coons pleaded not guilty Friday in Northampton to a charge of conspiracy in the first degree. She was ordered held on $100,000 bail.
The Northwestern district attorney’s office has said Coons and her husband, Jason Coons, were charged in April with plotting to kill the main witness in Jason Coons’ 2014 rape case in order to get the case dismissed. Cynthia Coons and her husband denied the charges at an earlier arraignment.
Prosecutors say Coons was an “integral player” in two separate murder-for-hire plots. Investigators say payments for the killing had already started when her, her husband and another person involved were arrested.
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