Woman Convicted of Recruiting a Hitman to Kill Her Husband is Sentenced

A Fountain Valley woman who recruited a hit man in an unsuccessful attempt to hack her husband to death with a machete was sentenced today to 10 years and four months in prison.

Mary Katheryn Sharpski on Oct. 11 entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors that wiped out the 50-year-old defendant's credit for time served in jail, making her punishment the equivalent of nearly 16 years in prison, according to defense attorney Joel Garson.

The machete-wielding assailant, Antonio Cinco Ortega, 26, of Santa Ana, was sentenced in January to 25 years to life in prison for the March 3, 2009, attack that Frank Sharpski survived, but which left him dependent on a wheelchair and missing some of the fingers on one hand.

Co-defendant Michael Calvin Shores II, 42, is due in court Dec. 6 for a trial-setting conference. Fernandez is discussing a plea deal for Shores, as well.

Deputy District Attorney Lynda Fernandez said she started negotiating the plea deal after Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey last month ruled that she could not show jurors Sharpski's videotaped confession without the testimony of her inquisitor, retired detective Vern Ahlo.

Ahlo said he was "uninterested" in testifying in the planned retrial, Fernandez said.

The issue with the confession stems from Sharpski saying she might want an attorney, prompting the video camera to be shut off for 20 minutes before she related the details of the murder-for-hire plot, Fernandez said. Sharpski subsequently claimed the confession was coerced.

"Without (Ahlo's) cooperation, there was no way to disprove the defendant's testimony that she was harassed and badgered during the 20 minutes the video camera was off," Fernandez said.

Sharpski has about nine more years to do behind bars.

The victim wrote a letter to Toohey, explaining how he has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and needed help penning his victim-impact statement. Only recently has he been healthy enough to use a walker, but only with great difficulty, he said in the letter to the judge.

"Mary's actions have changed my life and my children's lives forever," he rwote. "I will never be able to have freedom from my injuries and disability."

Mary Sharpski, Shores and Ortega were tried together in 2011, but a mistrial was declared when jurors were unable to reach verdicts.

Shores and Mary Sharpski were accused of recruiting Ortega to kill her husband so the couple could move away together to Wyoming. Mary Sharpski, who was on her third marriage, also mistakenly though Frank Sharpski had a life insurance policy, Fernandez said.

Frank and Mary Sharpski lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Fountain Valley with their two daughters and son. Shores, who was one of their neighbors, was unemployed and moved in with the Sharpskis to help clean and care for the children instead of paying rent, according to Fernandez.

Frank Sharpski was about to get in his FedEx van to go to work about 5:30 a.m. when Ortega hacked at him with a three-foot machete. Ortega ran when someone nearby threatened to call police.

-- City News Service