Baptist Minister Sentenced To 50 Years After Hiring Congregants to Burn His Wife to Death

Thou shalt not, ah, who cares. Story out of Bloomfield, Missouri: 

Last week, a Scott County judge sentenced 71-year-old Donald Lafferty to 50 years in prison after a jury convicted him on charges of attempted murder, arson, armed criminal action and financial exploitation of the elderly.

Lafferty was the pastor of Beech Grove Church, a Baptist congregation in rural Bloomfield, Missouri.

His legal trouble began with a fire. Around 8:30 p.m. on January 12, 2013, the Bloomfield Fire Department was dispatched to Lafferty's home. His wife, Mildred, had called 911 to report the blaze after being woken by the heat of the flames. Firefighters extinguished the fire, but something smelled wrong about this inferno — specifically, it smelled like gas.

According to investigators, Lafferty lied to bank officials about possessing a Power of Attorney and even provided (presumably falsified) documents to make his case. The details of Lafferty's financial con are somewhat complex — and you should really read the Daily Statesman's report if you want the full rundown — but Lafferty was eventually able to drain his mother's CD account of some $86,000. He then opened a new checking account in his mother's name and started writing checks.

Tim McCoy, the investigator, interviewed Mildred Lafferty about what she remembered the day of the fire. She said her husband had prepared breakfast that day, but the coffee tasted "horrible" and she wasn't able to enjoy her usual second cup. During a drive to Poplar Bluff, she said she felt dizzy and asked her husband to take her home, which he did. She went to sleep on the couch. Cont.

Story from - River Front Times