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Pa. Woman Offered Man $30,000 to 'Whack' Stepmother, Drove Him to Scene and Gave Him Knife to Kill

A Pennsylvania woman who hired a man to “whack her stepmom,” according to police, will spend 30 to 60 years in prison for her role in the stepmom’s 2017 murder.

Tosha Mae Daley, 29, drove the killer to her stepmom’s neighborhood and handed him the knife after offering to pay him $30,000 for the deed, according to prosecutors, reports The Patriot-News and The Herald-Mail. She then picked him up after the attack.

Daley pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of third-degree murder and robbery, in exchange for dropping 11 other charges against her, Franklin County District Attorney Matthew D. Fogal tells PEOPLE.

Daley’s accomplice, Nicholas Shinn, 24, is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in October, reports The Herald-Mail.

Jamie Ruth Daley, 46, was stabbed in her Greene Township home on December 7, 2017, and was a mother of two — daughter Chloe, who was 16 at the time, and son Samuel, who was then 10, according to a GoFundMe page created to raise funds for her children.

Jamie R. Daley | GoFundMe
Jamie R. Daley | GoFundMe

Tosha Daley admitted to police that she drove Shinn to her stepmom’s neighborhood to carry out a robbery plotted by the two, but claimed she also tried to call her stepmom to warn her ahead of time, according to a criminal affidavit, reports The Patriot-News.

Shinn offered a different account and alleged the murder for hire. “I was going to get paid to whack her stepmom,” he said, according to a probable cause affidavit in the case.

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Daley and her stepmom earlier had argued over the repossession of a car, police said. The affidavit lays out that a tow truck driver who showed up to repossess the car overheard what appeared to be an argument unfolding inside the stepmom’s house and called police. Meanwhile, witnesses reported a suspicious man who they followed to the stepmom’s house, and then saw running away from the house before getting into a black SUV driven by someone later identified as Tosha Daley.

Authorities who arrived found the victim outside her home and covered in blood, with more blood in the garage and inside the home. She was pronounced dead at the scene; an autopsy said she died after suffering stab wounds and blunt force trauma, according to the affidavit.

Using information provided by the tow truck driver, authorities tracked the vehicle he’d been sent to repossess to a home. There, they found Tosha Daley and Shinn, along with bloody clothes and a wallet containing a credit card belonging to the victim.

Tosha Daley’s plea to third-degree murder means she admitted her intent to cause harm, but not kill the victim. Her plea averted a trial where she faced a maximum sentence of life without parole if convicted.

The sentence to which she agreed carries 20 to 40 years in prison for the murder, with an additional 10 to 20 years for the robbery.