It started as many reunions of old buddies do, on Facebook. Christine Metter and Patrick Sabo had gone to highschool collectively in Chesterland, Ohio, again when she was nonetheless Christine Zombory. Sabo and Christine reconnected and located a standard curiosity in complaining about their exes, in accordance to court documents.

Christine’s ex-husband, David Metter, had custody of the couple’s oldest daughter and was planning on making an attempt to get custody of their different three kids, Mashable reported, however Christine wasn’t having it.

In the Facebook dialog that sparked the concept that would land Christine and her father, Al Zombory, in jail, Christine “was complaining to Sabo about sure points she had together with her ex-husband, David Metter. Jokingly, Sabo advised [her] to save her cash and rent a hitman. Sabo adopted the remark with “LMAO. [Christine] responded “LOL,” and their dialog ended,” in accordance to courtroom paperwork.

A seed was planted, and some hours later Sabo discovered himself at dinner along with his excessive Metter and her father who he mentioned propositioned him to homicide David Metter for $50,000, courtroom paperwork say.

Sabo Pretended to Agree to do the Hit, But Instead, He Went to the Eastlake Police Department

It’s not clear why Christine and Zombory would belief Sabo to perform a homicide on their behalf, however in hindsight, they picked the fallacious man.

According to the case recordsdata, Sabo met Christine and her father at their house complicated on May 27, 2011, as Zombory was dwelling with Christine on the time. They all rode to a restaurant collectively and on the best way, Zombory advised Sabo he’d had a stroke and his arms trembled so he could not shoot straight, but when he might, he mentioned “I’d have shot the son of a b**** myself,” referring to his former son in legislation, David.

Court paperwork say Sabo was “considerably alarmed,” and “surmised [Christine] apparently took his earlier touch upon Facebook severely.”

According to the case recordsdata, “Once they arrived on the restaurant, Zombory disclosed that he needed Mr. Metter shot and killed. Zombory supplied Sabo $50,000 to full the hit, and advised Sabo he was ready to give him $2,000 as a down fee. Zombory said the remaining cash would come from a life insurance coverage coverage on Mr. Metter of which [Christine] was a beneficiary. Zombory gave Sabo an image of the proposed sufferer and a hand-written deal with.”

The life insurance coverage coverage was for $1.5 million, the web site Cleveland reported, so the majority of the fee for the homicide was contingent on the coverage coming by means of.

Sabo left dinner that night time and contacted the Eastlake Police to say them what had occurred, and a plan was hatched for a police officer, Detective Christopher Bowerstock, to fake to be a hitman. He would go by the title, “Vinnie.”

But the police nonetheless wanted Sabo to assist catch his highschool good friend and her septuagenarian father of their murder-for-hire plot.

And they would want the assistance of David Metter, too.

David Metter Played Along With the Plan, Sending a Photo of Himself That Police Altered to Make It Look Like He’d Been Shot within the Head

Christine Metter simply entered the courtroom. pic.twitter.com/Ju7xbzg7

— Beachwood Patch (@BeachwoodPatch) February 23, 2012

David, who had moved to Atlanta since divorcing Christine, was contacted by police and advised that his ex-wife and former father-in-law had been making an attempt to pay somebody to kill him.

Police, “requested that he take some photos of himself that could possibly be manipulated to make him seem deceased. He did so and a picture was altered to make it seem Mr. Metter had been shot within the head,” the court documents say.

“Vinny” took the picture to show Christine and Zombory “proof” that he’d completed the job. According to the courtroom recordsdata, when “Vinny”, aka, detective Bowerstock, met with Christine underneath the guise of wanting on the insurance coverage coverage from which he was supposedly going to be paid, he supplied to show her the picture of her “expired” husband.

Christine “declined to look, however muttered, ‘he beat me and my kids'” the case recordsdata say.

She requested the person she believed killed her kids’s father if he was in a position to make the homicide seem like a mugging. To that, he mentioned he’d shot the person within the head “such as you guys needed,” per the courtroom data.

Moments later the police got here in and arrested Christine and Zombory on the spot. Both had been in the end convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated homicide in 2012, in accordance to Mashable.

Christine, 41, was sentenced to 10-years in jail, and Zombory,77, was sentenced to 9 years in jail. He died earlier than his sentence was up, per WKYC.