A Kentucky pediatrician accused in a murder-for hire plot against her ex-husband reportedly tried to hire “occult” practitioners to kill him with a “death spell.”
Stephanie M. Russell, 53, is charged with one count of using interstate commerce facilities in the plot when she agreed to pay an undercover FBI agent $7,000 to kill Rick Crabtree after a judge awarded him sole custody of their two children, Law&Crime reported.
Federal prosecutors say Russell paid the agent half the fee before her May 2022 arrest. But her attorneys have entered into the records her prior attempts to have “spiritual healers” cast spells on her ex.
“What is your success rate? Your price? Your guarantee?” Russell asks one such person.
The respondent, identified as “mama,” replies that she has an 85 percent “death success rate” and that her prices depend “on the number of people. Mama does offera “100% guarantee or money back,” she says.
Russell asks if she uses “sacrfice,” but Mama says, “no.” The woman also says she only works on a “cash basis.”
Russell asks for details about the type of magic to be used, but Mama says she “can’t tell you inside details but i will do your job.”
A second query went to a “Spiritual Healer” who guaranteed “100% result in 6hours.”
Russell repeated asks to pay after the job is done but is repeated told no.
A third respondent advised Russell not to use a death spell. “killing him etc is going to harm you and family as he has some type of protection on him,” the respondent, who was identified as “sk,” said.
Russell asked all three about the Afro-Brazilian practice Quimbanda, but none of them said they used it.
Sk tried to convince Russell to use a “banishing spell” instead, but the doctor was adamant that she wanted Crabtree dead.
Russell’s attorneys seem to believe presenting this evidence will convince the court that she does not have the mental capacity to be convicted of murder-for-hire.
“Ms. Russell’s mental health was severely disturbed, from both the empirical and clinical perspectives, when she engaged in the conduct alleged in the indictment,” the motion reads. “In March 2022, Ms. Russell reached out to self-described spiritualists for help, asking (with all credulity) for a ‘death spell’ on her ex-husband.”
Her attorneys say they plan to introduce testimony from a forensic psychiatrist who says over and over in a report that Russell is “delusional.” Prosecutors have opposed using him as an expert witness.
Russell has been in jail without bond since her arrest, as a judge determined she remained a danger to Crabtree. Her trial is set to being on April 22.
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[Featured image: Stephanie M. Russell/Oldham County Detention Center]
