A Buffalo Township man will spend four years in prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to kill her husband after Internet messages led to an affair in a southeast Ohio city.
John W. Jaworski, 36, of Goldscheitter Road in the Ekastown section of the township, could have received a 10-year sentence. However, the lesser sentence was ordered because he cooperated with the prosecution, St. Clairsville (Ohio) Police Chief Martin Kendzora said Thursday.
Jaworski and girlfriend Leslie Long, 38, of St. Clairsville, conspired to kill her husband, Brian Long, because Brian Long had custody of the couple's two children and he was divorcing her.
Police said Leslie Long had secretly obtained about $350,000 in insurance policies for her husband, according to a report published by the Wheeling News-Register.
Kendzora said Jaworski admitted to offering Richard Cavanaugh, 42, of North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, $5,000 to kill Long.
Police said Cavanaugh shot Long twice at the Longs' house but the man survived.
Jaworski was sentenced to four years in prison. Long's wife was sentenced to nine years in prison. They were both sentenced Aug. 26.
Police said Cavanaugh is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30. He is in the Belmont County jail, the same place Leslie Long is being housed temporarily.
Jaworski entered the Ohio prison system Sept. 1, an Ohio corrections spokeswoman said, but it wasn't immediately known where he is imprisoned.
Chief Kendzora said the shooting startled his small city.
"This the first murder for hire that we've ever had," he said.
