Wife enters plea in attack on husband

Jennifer Eichhorn pleads no contest for her role in what police say was a botched plot to kill her husband.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- A Spring Hill woman pleaded no contest Friday to a charge of aggravated battery in connection with what authorities called a botched scheme to murder her husband last year.

Jennifer Eichhorn, 25, was arrested in May 1999 on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. She was accused of plotting with a co-worker, Thomas Baxter of New Port Richey, to kill her husband, Lonnie Eichhorn.

According to authorities, Baxter approached the loading dock at the seafood store where Lonnie Eichhorn worked, posed as an FBI agent, and ordered workers to lie down. He told Eichhorn he was under arrest, and bound his wrists with what turned out to be toy handcuffs, police say. Outside, authorities said, Baxter pistol-whipped Eichhorn and choked him with a flashlight before Eichhorn broke free.

Baxter, 22, was sentenced in January to 13 years in state prison for his role in the crime, which brought convictions on charges of aggravated battery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and impersonating a police officer. He is held at the Calhoun Correctional Institution in Blountstown.

Despite accusations she was behind the plot, the State Attorney's Office allowed Jennifer Eichhorn to plead no contest to the charge of aggravated battery, a lesser charge than conspiracy to commit murder.

She entered what is called an "open plea," which means there is no agreement in place as to what penalty she will receive when Circuit Judge Craig C. Villanti sentences her Sept. 21.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.