Rice: Williams Agreed to Pay $20K in Murder-for-Hire Plot
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced that a Garden City mother of four has been arrested after agreeing to pay a hitman $20,000 to kill her husband. In reality, the man posing as hitman was actually an undercover Nassau County Police detective.
Susan Williams, 43, was arrested by detectives with the Nassau County Police Department’s DA Squad and charged with Conspiracy in the Second Degree (B Felony) and Criminal Solicitation in the Second Degree (D Felony). According to the DA’s office, she faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. She was arraigned on March 5 in the First District Court in Hempstead.
Rice said that on Feb. 19, Williams approached a confidential source and informed him that she wanted to have her husband, Peter Williams, murdered and that she wanted the source to arrange it. Instead of finding a hitman, the source contacted the DA’s office.
According to police reports, on Feb. 23, while under audio surveillance, the source called Williams to tell her that he could arrange a meeting with a hitman. That meeting took place on Feb. 28; only the hitman was actually an undercover Nassau County police detective. During this meeting, Williams allegedly stated that she and her husband were in the middle of divorce proceedings and she wanted him dead.
Williams was told by the undercover detective that it would cost her $20,000 to have her husband killed. According to Rice, at a March 3 meeting between the two where she was given numerous opportunities to back out, Williams handed the undercover detective a photo of her husband, his home and work address, license plate number, and provided a $500 down payment.
“That this defendant so casually decided to organize the murder of her husband shocks the conscience,” Rice said. “She was given numerous opportunities to call this off, yet she pursued it vigorously until the very end. Thanks to the investigative work performed by both the Nassau County Police Department and members of my office, a life was saved and this defendant will now have to answer for her crimes.”
Assistant District Attorney Jane Zwirn-Turkin of the Rackets Bureau is handling the case for the DA’s office. Williams entered a not guilty plea at her arraignment on March 5 and bail was set at $1 million or $500,000 cash.
The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
