PALM BAY, Fla. – A 33-year-old Palm Bay woman was arrested on allegations of attempting to hire a hit man to kill another woman, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Ashley Spencer was arrested Thursday afternoon at her workplace on charges of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit occupied burglary with battery. A judge set her bond Friday at $350,000 and Spencer is being held in the Seminole County jail because the victim works at the Brevard County jail, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“The allegations that probable cause were found on are disturbing as far as the danger to the community aspect,” Judge Aaron Peacock said.
The Sheriff’s Office said an investigation began in late August when authorities received information from a concerned citizen who advised that someone wanted to harm a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office correctional deputy. The citizen said Spencer wanted to know if there were any felons that would do a “job” for her, according to officials. Spencer said she had a gun and wanted to harm a female corrections deputy and her child, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
A telephone call between the concerned citizen and Spencer was monitored by sheriff’s agents, and the citizen told Spencer she knew someone who could help her, but that person wanted to know what the “job” was, the Sheriff’s Office said. Spencer said that the intended victim had an affair with her husband and gave birth to his child, according to authorities.
Spencer’s husband is a former corrections deputy at the Brevard County Jail who resigned in August.
“She and her husband have been trying to have, specifically, a male child. The child that was produced out of the affair was a male and that, of course, made her even more upset and that was one of her reasons for wanting to kill this female,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tod Goodyear said.
Spencer said she wanted the person to break into the intended victim’s house and tie up anyone inside so that she could harm them, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
An undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms then arranged a Wednesday meeting with Spencer, who stated she would bring her .38-caliber revolver and shoot the intended victim, officials said.
Spencer agreed to pay the undercover agent $2,000, sheriff’s officials said.
The Sheriff’s Office said Spencer also provided details of an alibi she had created in an effort to appear she was out of town during the shooting.
Spencer was arrested without incident.