Garden City Woman Charged With Trying to Hire Hit Man to Kill Her Husband

Williams agreed to pay $20K in murder-for-hire plot

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a Garden City mother of four has been arrested after agreeing to pay a hitman $20,000 to kill her husband. In reality, the hitman was actually an undercover Nassau County Police detective.

Susan Williams, 43, was arrested by detectives with the Nassau County Police Department’s DA Squad and charged with Conspiracy in the Second Degree and Criminal Solicitation in the Second Degree. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. She is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in First District Court, Hempstead.

Rice said that on February 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, the source contacted the DA’s Office.

On February 23, while under audio surveillance, the source called Williams to tell her that he could arrange a meeting with a hitman. That meeting took place on February 28, only the hitman was actually an undercover Nassau County police detective. During this meeting, Williams stated that she and her husband were in the middle of divorce proceedings and she wanted him dead.

Williams was told by the undercover detective that 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, Williams handed the undercover detective a photo of her husband, his home and work address, license plate number, and a provided a $500 down payment.

“That this defendant so casually decided to organize the murder of her husband shocks the conscience,” Rice said. “She was given numerous opportunities to call this off, yet she pursued it vigorously until the very end. Thanks to the investigative work performed by both the Nassau County Police Department and members of my office, a life was saved and this defendant will now have to answer for her crimes.”

"The Nassau County District Attorneys Office and the Nassau County Police Department have taken an aggressive role in fighting violent crime in our county," said Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence W. Mulvey. "Clearly, we are pleased to be able to prevent an act of violence. It is essential that our offices share resources and expertise in order to apprehend and successfully prosecute crimes of this nature."

Assistant District Attorney Jane Zwirn-Turkin of the Rackets Bureau is handling the case for the DA’s Office.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.