Man gets 10 years in prison

The Daily Inter Lake

and The Associated Press

A Libby man convicted of hiring an undercover police officer to attempt to kill his wife was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison.

Shane Douglas Sichting, 39, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy.

Sichting was found guilty in December of using interstate communications to set up a murder-for-hire plot. The conviction followed a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

The jury took four hours to convict him.

According to court records, Sichting, who owns American Muscle Autoworks in Libby, approached an employee in November 2006 about hiring someone to kill his wife, Sheilagh.

Sichting allegedly said she was causing him problems.

The employee, Ronald Morales, agreed to the job and told Sichting he would hire a Mexican hit man. He then accepted $30,000 from Sichting before returning to his family in Eugene, Ore., leaving his car in Libby as collateral for the payment.

Sichting kept in touch with Morales by phone, believing he was furthering the murder-for-hire plot, and wired him an additional $5,000.

Prosecutors portrayed Morales as a drifter who saw Sichting's unhappy marriage as an opportunity to swindle him out of money.

Sheilagh Sichting testified she had endured years of physical and mental abuse from her husband, which only became worse when she gained custody of their two children. She learned of the plot to have her killed when her husband was arrested during a divorce proceeding on Aug. 31, 2007, she said.

After receiving the last of the wire transfers, Morales cut off ties to Sichting, expecting the man to realize he had been scammed. Instead, Sichting traveled to Oregon to contact his former employee about his progress.

When Morales was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Oregon, prosecutors said he told police about the plot because he was afraid what might happen to both himself and Sheilagh.

Defense attorneys had argued that money changed hands as payment for the car Morales left in Libby, and that Sichting had a change of heart and called off the plan.

They also pointed to Morales' extensive criminal background, calling into question his credibility as a witness.

After Morales came forward, FBI agents began investigating Sichting, and on Aug. 30 sent undercover Kalispell police officer John Ortiz to pose as the would-be murderer for hire.

Ortiz met with Sichting in Libby and confirmed the man had paid money to have his wife killed.

The officer asked Sichting "how he wanted it done," saying that he usually made it look like a carjacking and would shoot her in the back of the head and take her purse to make it look like a theft.

However, both recording devices Ortiz wore during the meeting malfunctioned, leaving prosecutors to rely only on his handwritten notes.

Sichting was arrested and charged soon after the meeting. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Kalispell Police Department.