An Elkins woman is out of jail on bond after deputies say she solicited someone to kill her ex-husband and offered a guitar and a Winnebago camper as payment.
Teri Lea Baber was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of solicitation of murder. She was released Thursday from the Benton County Jail on $10,000 bond, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Tabitha Cleveland, the woman Baber allegedly tried to hire to kill her ex-husband, came forward to authorities after the offer, said Deputy Keshia Guyll of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Cleveland recorded a phone call with Baber on May 13, in which Baber offers Cleveland money, land, a guitar and a Winnebago camper to kill her ex-husband, according to a probable cause report from Benton County Circuit Court. Baber told Cleveland she owed her ex-husband $45,000 to keep her land and home, the report states.
Baber suggests Cleveland meet the ex-husband at Ozark Lanes in Fayetteville, since he takes part in a bowling league there. She said Cleveland could slip LSD into his coffee and flirt with him, the report states. Cleveland could then get him alone and shoot him with a gun, or convince him to shoot himself, the report states Baber suggested.
Baber wanted Cleveland to write a suicide note in the man’s handwriting leaving everything to Baber, according to the report.
