Kathleen Dorsett, the 38-year-old former third-grade teacher and her parents pleaded guilty on Thursday to working together in an effort to kill her ex-husband, in a convoluted murder plot executed by her father Thomas, the Associated Press reported. They also attempted to murder his mother.
The father and daughter told a judge they were angry about the divorce decree and custody arrangements for the couple's daughter, who was 20 months old.
Dorsett pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted murder and second-degree conspiracy to desecrate human remains. Dorsett said that on the day of her husband's death in August 2010, she sent him to the backyard of her Ocean Township home, where her father was waiting to kill him. Her father admitted that he drove the car with her husband's body to Long Branch New Jersey, and then hired a hit man to set the car ablaze the following day. The body was stuffed in the trunk.
Thursday's court hearing involved lawyers and defendants revealing how family problems led to a murderous plot. Prosecutors revealed that family problems, particularly Dorsett's husband's inability to provide for the family caused strain.
Lesley Dorsett, 68, told the court she conspired with her daughter, who at the time was in jail for her ex-husband's murder, to also have Moore's mother killed.
"The goal was to kill (her) because we were afraid she was going to testify," Lesley Dorsett said. The women were also upset Moore's mother was awarded temporary custody of Kathleen Dorsett's daughter.
Lesley Dorsett said she took an envelope with Moore's mother's name on it, stuffed it with cash and handed it over at a department store to someone she believed was a hit man. But the supposed hit man was actually an undercover cop and Lesley Dorsett was soon arrested, the AP reported.
Kathleen Dorsett faces 58 years in state prison without parole before 51 years. Thomas Dorsett faces 50 years in prison with no parole before 30 years.
Lesley Dorsett faces eight years in prison with no parole before seven years.
The Dorsett's are scheduled to be sentenced on August 8.
