LOS ANGELES, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The lead singer in a heavy
metal Christian rock band has been ordered by a California judge
on Monday to stand trial for allegedly attempting to hire an
undercover sheriff’s deputy to kill his estranged wife.
Tim Lambesis, the 32-year-old lead singer in the band As I
Lay Dying, will stand trial in San Diego County Superior Court
in Vista, California, and faces up to nine years in prison if
convicted.
He was arrested in May in Oceanside, north of San Diego, and
charged with a count of soliciting the murder of his wife,
Meggan Lambesis, who had filed for divorce a year earlier. They
had been married eight years.
Lambesis has pleaded not guilty. His attorney has said that
his client was set up and has never harmed his wife in the past.
Prosecutors allege Lambesis asked an undercover sheriff’s
deputy posing as a man named “Red” to kill his estranged wife.
The singer is accused of giving the man an envelope
containing $1,000 in cash, photos of his wife, her address and
codes to her home security system. He also allegedly gave the
deputy a list of dates to carry out the murder when he would
have their three adopted children with him.
Prosecutors have said that Lambesis intended to use being
with their children as his alibi.
Lambesis is also alleged to have initially asked a gym
acquaintance to help him find someone to kill his wife, but the
acquaintance arranged for the singer to meet the undercover
sheriff’s deputy instead.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Jackie
Frank)
