Idaho lawyer gets 50 years in wife's murder plot

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Wednesday, Nov. 09, 2011
Idaho lawyer gets 50 years in wife's murder plot
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS - Associated Press

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — An Idaho attorney who once represented the white supremacist Aryan Nations group was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in federal prison in the failed plot to kill his wife and mother-in-law.

Edgar J. Steele wanted the women dead so he could collect on an uninsured motorist insurance policy and be free to pursue a relationship with a woman from Ukraine, prosecutors said. He paid $10,000 in silver to another Idaho man who agreed to kill the women, authorities said.

The would-be hit man, Larry Fairfax, testified during Steele's trial that he accepted the silver because he was desperate for money, but never intended to carry out the plan.

~snip~

Steele, who represented Aryan Nations and founder Richard Butler during the 2000 trial that bankrupted the hate group, has always denied trying to kill his wife, and Cyndi Steele continues to support him. He told the court Wednesday he was the victim of a government conspiracy because of his political views. He demanded that the judge release him immediately.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/11/09/2040582/idaho-lawyer-gets-50-years-in.html

[Enrique]

1. the wife continues to support him?

thats kind of odd.

[murielm99]

2. Well, these people are kind of odd.

I can't see representing the Aryan Nations guy unless ordered to do so by the court.

[TBF]

4. Odd, but we have a case in Houston this fall just like that -

Yvonne Stern, the Bellaire woman at the center of a murder-for-hire plot allegedly orchestrated by her husband, testified Monday that she has reconciled her marriage and she is standing by Jeffrey Stern.

On the witness stand, she also talked about being shot at, one of three unsuccessful attempts on her life last year...

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Bellaire-woman-stands-by-husband-in-2132738.php

[Enrique]

5. what kind of marriage do you have after your spouse has tried three times to kill you?

does it come up in arguments later? Oh yeah,well what about those three times you tried to kill me!

[TBF]

6. I know, right

totally bizarre.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Yesterday: Prosecution seeks 50 years for Edgar Steele

Prosecution seeks 50 years for Edgar Steele
Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 12:15 am | Updated: 9:49 am, Wed Nov 9, 2011.

Prosecution seeks 50 years for Edgar Steele
By DAVID COLE/Staff writer The Coeur d' Alene Press

COEUR d'ALENE - Federal prosecutors are asking that Edgar J. Steele receive 50 years in prison for the murder-for-hire plot he concocted to have his wife killed, court documents said.

Steele, 65, an attorney who represented high-profile clients in North Idaho, including the Aryan Nations' onetime leader Richard Butler, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court, in Coeur d'Alene.

~snip~
For it, Fairfax manufactured and attached two pipe bombs on vehicles owned by the Steeles, so when Cyndi Steele drove in her SUV from North Idaho to western Oregon in May 2010 to visit her mother the first bomb would explode and kill her.

The plan was devised so the second bomb would be discovered on Edgar Steele's car, un-detonated, diverting suspicion from him.

Neither bomb went off.

More:
http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_334e4444-a7c8-54bd-8dc5-26d40a234a2c.html