On the morning he was set to go to trial, a Vancouver man accused of enlisting a hit man to kill his estranged wife agreed to plead guilty to 19 lesser domestic violence allegations.
As part of Monday’s plea deal, prosecutors dismissed charges of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree arson.
Terrence C. Herndon, 32, will be sentenced this morning in Clark County Superior Court. His defense attorney, Suzan Clark, said that she and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Camara Banfield will both recommend a sentence of 10 years in prison.
Herndon would have faced about 30 years in prison had he gone to trial and been convicted on all charges.
Arrested in October on suspicion of several allegations of second-degree assault of his wife, Herndon was charged last week with trying to hire a fellow jail inmate to kill Kristina Herndon, 35, and burn down her house. The alleged solicitations occurred between Jan. 15 and Feb. 2.
Banfield told Judge Robert Lewis that Herndon allegedly told the inmate to go to his wife’s house, wait until she was asleep and then light her couch on fire. The inmate was told to leave a love letter from Herndon at the house, so that investigators wouldn’t suspect Herndon.
In exchange for the killing, Banfield said that Herndon offered the inmate immunity from Herndon’s gang, the Hoover Crips, and allowed him to take part in an illegal scam operation involving the Internal Revenue Service.
The inmate alerted a detective before anything happened, Banfield said.
The domestic violence assault charges surfaced on Oct. 21, when Herndon’s wife reported to sheriff’s deputies that he choked her to the point that she blacked out. She had fresh marks on her neck consistent with her story, Banfield said.
She also told deputies that Terrence Herndon, in a fit of rage, broke the TV in her room at her house in the Minnehaha neighborhood. She said he broke her cell phone when she tried to report the assault to deputies, the deputy prosecutor said.
Herndon also pleaded guilty in connection to intimidating a public servant, five counts of tampering with a witness, 10 no-contact order violations, malicious mischief and interference with making a domestic violence report.
Those charges relate to the ongoing domestic violence investigation, including allegations that Herndon repeatedly contacted or had others contact his wife to dissuade her from testifying against him.
