Garden City Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Husband's Murder-for-Hire Plot

The Nassau County Police Department's District Attorney Squad arrested a Garden City woman March 4 for allegedly soliciting and conspiring with another since mid-February to murder her husband for an agreed upon amount of money.

Susan Williams, 43, agreed to pay $20,000 for the murder-for-hire, according to the Nassau District Attorney's office. The mother of four was arrested at her Nassau Boulevard home at 7:40 p.m. last night.

Williams pleaded not guilty at her March 5 arraignment. Judge Norman Janowitz set bail at $1M bond or $500,000 cash.

District Attorney Kathleen 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, that source contacted the DA's office.

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, which took place Feb. 28, was, in reality, with an undercover Nassau County police detective.

Rice said that during the meeting Williams stated she and her husband were in the middle of divorce proceedings and she "wanted him dead."

The undercover detective told Williams it would cost her $20,000 to have her husband killed. At a March 3 meeting between the two, where she was given numerous opportunities to back out, the DA's Office notes, Williams gave the undercover detective a photo of her husband, his home and work address, license plate number and a $500 down payment.

"That this defendant so casually decided to organize the murder of her husband shocks the conscience," Rice said in a statement. "She was given numerous opportunities to call this off, yet she pursued it vigorously until the very end."

Williams is charged with second-degree conspiracy, a B felony, and second-degree criminal solicitation, a D felony. Her next court date is scheduled for March 9.

She faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.