Louisville, Kentucky – A licensed pediatrician, Dr. Stephanie Russell, has found herself in a strange and disturbing legal case. She stands accused of attempting to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband, but the case took a bizarre turn when it was revealed that she also sought the services of a Brazilian spiritual healer to cast a “death spell” on her former spouse.
Text messages filed in U.S. District Court displayed detailed conversations between Russell and the unidentified woman claiming to be a spiritual healer. The discussions revolved around Russell’s desire to curse Rick Crabtree, her ex-husband, after he was granted sole custody of their two children by the court.
The messages revealed that the healer claimed to have an “85% death rate” for her curses, suggesting that Crabtree could be dead within five hours of casting the spell. Russell appeared to be actively engaged in the process, even asking if sacrifice was involved in the ritual.
Despite the efforts of Russell’s defense team to paint her actions as a result of delusion, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford remained silent on the matter. However, in court documents, Ford cautioned against attempts to garner sympathy for Russell based on the content of the text messages.
Furthermore, the defense team argued that Russell truly believed in the abilities of the spiritual healer, unlike the undercover FBI agent who posed as a hitman offering to kill her ex-husband for money. The defense presented the text messages as evidence of Russell’s state of mind at the time of the crime.
Russell, who ran a successful pediatric practice in Louisville, was arrested and charged with violating a federal murder-for-hire law, which carries a potential 10-year prison sentence. A federal magistrate judge deemed her a flight risk and ordered her to remain in jail pending trial.
As the case unfolds, Russell’s defense team continues to fight for her, seeking to demonstrate that she may have been acting under a compulsion or delusion. The trial, initially scheduled for December, was postponed by the presiding judge to allow for further preparation and legal arguments.
With the trial now set for April, the legal saga surrounding Dr. Stephanie Russell’s alleged plot to harm her ex-husband through supernatural means continues to captivate observers. The unsettling details of the case shed light on the complexities of human behavior and the extremes to which individuals may go when consumed by emotion.