SHREVEPORT, La. -- After a 73-year-old farmer's funeral Thursday, Caddo Parish deputies arrested his widow and accused her of paying $1,000 to have him killed.
Bobbie Loretta Luttrell, 70, of Keithville, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ernest Luttrell and will be held without bond, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick said.
Sheriff Steve Prator said Bobbie Luttrell planned the killing after her husband changed his mind about giving a large amount of money to one of her relatives.
Bobbie Luttrell asked 44-year-old Tina VanMoerkerque, a family friend who lived in a mobile home behind the couple's homes and did housekeeping and odd jobs for them, to find a killer, offering $1,000, police said.
VanMoerkerque and Erick Crain, 26, were earlier booked earlier with first-degree murder.
"Mrs. Luttrell plotted with VanMoerkerque to have him killed so she could sell his property and still provide the money to the family member," a news release said.
Bobbie Luttrell left for church unusually early Sunday and called VanMoerkerque, who left Crain at the house to carry out the killing, according to Chadwick.
She said Bobbie Luttrell told detectives that she got home from work Sunday to find her husband dead and his truck and several firearms gone.
Bobbie Luttrell had been in Arkansas with family since Sunday, but returned to Caddo Parish for her husband's funeral in Shreveport, Chadwick said.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
