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Columbia Missourian

St. Louis wife gets 20 years for plotting husband's death

By The Associated Press
August 31, 2010 | 4:24 p.m. CDT

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in a murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of her husband.

The sentence for Karen Coleman was handed down Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Coleman's husband, Danny Harold Coleman, was killed Oct. 22, 1992, in his south St. Louis home. He was 38. His body was taken to Franklin County, where it was found in his burning pickup truck.

Federal prosecutors say Karen Coleman wanted her husband dead for the insurance money. Two men, James Kornhardt and Steven Mueller, were convicted of murder conspiracy and murder-for-hire charges in June. Both face mandatory sentences to life in prison. Formal sentencing is Sept. 23.

Karen Coleman pleaded guilty in June to the same charges.