GOLDEN, Colo. — An animal rights attorney Jennifer Reba Emmi pleaded guilty to several crimes in connection with an alleged plot to have her estranged husband’s girlfriend killed, the Brighton Standard Blade reported.
The Colorado lawyer who hosts her own show on Facebook is also known as Jennifer Reba Edwards. In addition to the murder-for-hire scheme, she was also accused of holding a knife to her husband’s throat, strangling her child, and threatening to drive her car into a tractor trailer with the couple’s children in the vehicle.
Following her arrest, she told Denver television station KDVR during a jailhouse interview in February that she had been set up.
“I’ve always fought for the underdog and now I’m the underdog. That’s what this boils down to,” she said. “I really do feel like I’m in some kind of nightmare TV show. This whole thing has just been a ridiculous course of events.”
“I was set up, and I have been repeatedly set up. All I can say is I want the truth to come out. The whole thing is crazy. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
So things have now changed. Emmi, 43, pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit second-degree murder, menacing, heat-of-passion strangulation, attempting to influence a judge, violation of a bail bond, retaliation against a witness, and stalking. In addition to the slew of felonies, the self-described “underdog” also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of child abuse, criminal mischief, reckless driving, and evidence tampering, Standard Blade reported
By accepting the plea arrangement, prosecutors dismissed 11 other felony charges and 12 misdemeanor charges Emmi was facing, according to People.
Emmi regularly appeared on news shows in the region and hosted a popular Facebook show about animals, prior to her January arrest, Law&Crime reported.
According to a 33-page affidavit filed Jan. 25 and obtained by Fox News, Emmi first asked ranch hand Timothy Lindsey, 28, to help her kill her estranged husband’s girlfriend in November 2020. After the conversation, Lindsey went to authorities and assisted with the investigation, recording several phone calls during which Emmi allegedly asked if he knew anyone to “get rid of her,” and provided the girlfriend’s name and workplace, court records show.
Lindsey “played along,” according to the affidavit, and told Emmi the job would cost between $50,000 and $100,000, Law Officer reported.
“Jennifer responded that the money would not be a problem,” the affidavit says.
Emmi also allegedly discussed whether her husband should also be killed and whether it should happen at his ranch in Evergreen or elsewhere, suggesting in one conversation that maybe both he and the girlfriend be taken out because “if there was a car accident or something, no one would know,” the affidavit says. But Emmi then decided to “hold off.”
“We are not going to do anything,” she later told Lindsey, according to the affidavit.
Emmi is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 16, Law&Crime reported.
Colorado state records show Emmi’s law license under the name Jennifer Reba Edwards. There is no record of discipline on an Office of Attorney Regulation website maintained by the Colorado Supreme Court, but Emmi’s license status is listed as “disability inactive.”
