STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — A judge in Virginia has upheld the 81-year prison sentence that a jury recommended for a former police officer convicted of trying to hire a hit man while she was jailed on other charges.
The Free Lance-Star reports Judge Victoria Willis on Friday said she had no reason to change the jury recommendation in the case of 39-year-old Cassie C. Crisano. Jurors also recommended a $150,000 fine.
Crisano was a former officer for the Prince George’s County Police
Department in Maryland. She was convicted in August of three counts of attempted capital murder and three counts of soliciting capital murder.
Authorities accused Crisano of trying to arrange for someone to kill witnesses against her: a Stafford police detective, a former friend and the father of her youngest child. Authorities had an officer pose as a hit man and made her think one of the men had been killed.
The newspaper reports Crisano represented herself during Friday’s hearing. She said in court she is “not a monster” and “didn’t do all of those things” prosecutors said during her trial.