Kit Roberts
A woman has pleaded guilty after her ex-husband survived a murder attempt she orchestrated.
Shaerin Rose Kelley entered a guilty plea after hiring two teenagers to kill her ex-husband, Baron Li, in a murder for hire plot.
Kelley reportedly paid the two teens, who were aged 17 at the time, $13,000 to kill Li - but ultimately the teens' efforts to shoot Li proved unsuccessful and he survived the attempt on his life.
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Kelley has now pleaded guilty to a charge of solicitation to commit murder in the second degree and faces up to 13 years in jail as a result of her crime.
But Li does not think that this is a long enough sentence to account for the crime.
He told KING: "If this goes through and the judge goes along with a plea agreement, my son’s only going to be 17 when she gets out. It’s not enough time."
The pair had been locked in a custody battle over their disabled child at the time of the offence.
Recounting the attempt on his life, Li told KING: “I heard a pop. I thought it was a firework. I looked to the left. I didn’t see anything, I looked to the right, the second shot goes off, hits my arm.
“First shot to my chest and I was like, ‘Oh crap what am I going to do’ and dove into car putting my head underneath the steering wheel and then he unloaded another 5 shots on my left side.”
Fortunately, Li survived the attempt on his life, but had to undergo 15 months of therapy.
He claims that he knew instantly that it was his ex wife who had ordered the attack.
The two attackers very nearly succeeded in their attempt. They attacked Li outside of his apartment complex in Bellevue on 10 July 2020.
Li used a car door to shield himself, but ended up being shot a total of nine times by his attackers. Miraculously, none of the shots inflicted a lethal injury.
The couple's child, which had been at the centre of a custody battle, also reportedly had a trust fund which was made up from a settlement following brain damage that he sustained as an infant.
Li claimed that his ex wife had been seeking that money, though Kelley has denied that this was the motive behind the attempted killing.
Kelley was linked to the crime after police discovered a tracking device which had been attached to the Li's car. They were able to use records online to link her to that device.