Court Told Of Lie Plea
Newcastle Herald
Thursday April 14, 2005
A WOMAN accused of murdering her husband asked a fellow prison inmate to lie for her by telling authorities that another woman confessed to the murder, a court heard yesterday.
Rachel Ross met Michelle Willard, 38, at Mulawa Correctional Centre after Willard had been arrested and charged over the death of her husband, Michael.Willard has pleaded not guilty to the murder. Her husband was shot in the head at close range while he lay sleeping on the lounge in the family's Muswellbrook home on February 22, 2003.Ross told Newcastle Supreme Court yesterday that Willard came into her cell and asked her to lie for her by telling authorities that a fellow inmate, Danielle Wilkinson, had confessed to the murder.Wilkinson is one of two people accused by the prosecution of conspiring with Willard to murder her husband.The Crown alleges Willard did not pull the trigger but contracted Wilkinson and a juvenile known only as TJ to kill her husband.Ross said she began writing down Willard's instructions but could not keep up, so she asked Willard to write down what it was she wanted her to tell the authorities."I said I wouldn't remember all that so I said: 'We'll put it down in writing', so I was writing while she was talking and then she continued to write out what she wanted me to say to the police," Ross said."She said that she would give me money, that I could come and stay with her when she got out."Two pieces of paper that the prosecution says contain the handwriting of Ross and Willard were tendered as evidence.Ross said that Willard told her that Wilkinson and TJ were expecting to be paid $20,000 each but that she had no intention of paying them.In other evidence a taped telephone conversation of Willard taking out a $200,000 accidental death plan on February 5 was played to the jury.The trial continues.
© 2005 Newcastle Herald