A Pierce County Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced a Gig Harbor woman convicted of hiring a hit man to kill her husband to 13 years, nine months in prison.
Karen Lofgren, 48, pleaded guilty last month to solicitation to commit second-degree murder. Prosecutors said Lofgren, formerly a nurse at Tacoma’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, used an acquaintance last year as a go-between to hire who she thought was a Mexican gangster to kill her husband. The acquaintance went to police, and the hit man turned out to be an undercover Pierce County sheriff’s detective.
Prosecutors asked for a high-end sentence of 13 years, nine months for Lofgren, rejecting her contentions that stress from a bad marriage and hostile divorce proceedings pushed her to commit the crime.
Lofgren’s attorney, Wayne Fricke, argued for a sentence below the standard range for his client. More than 50 people wrote letters on her behalf, asking Judge Katherine Stolz to show mercy. Many cited her service in the military and her work at Mary Bridge.
Lofgren wrote her own letter to the judge.
“I am truly sorry for this horrific error in judgment,” she said.
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