A local real estate agent who has admitted to hiring a man to kill his wife, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to federal prison time.

Twenty-eight-year-old Patrick Scott Shemorry of Charlottesville pleaded guilty in September to one count of murder-for-hire causing interstate travel with the promise of payment.

In court Wednesday, he was sentenced to 114 months of incarceration and three years of supervised release.

“Mr. Shemorry’s actions in trying to kill his wife were both meticulous and chilling," says U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy. “Once he made the decision to have his wife killed, the defendant stopped at nothing to achieve that goal. Today, he was justly punished for that terrible, criminal decision.”

Earlier this year during a guilty plea hearing, Shemorry admitted that in March 2009, he and his wife traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana. While there, they met and befriended a local resident, “Witness One.”

Shemorry and his wife invited Witness One to return to Charlottesville at the
culmination of their trip, which he did.

The Shemorry’s marriage, which had been falling apart over a period of time, began to deteriorate even further after Shemorry and his wife separated and she returned to New Orleans.

Following the separation, Shemorry made several comments regarding his desire to have his wife killed and that he wanted Witness One to be the person to kill her. During one of these conversations, Witness One recorded Shemorry telling him to kill his wife.

Shemorry described her as “poison” and a “disease.”

Shemorry told Witness One that he wanted him to travel New Orleans and kill his wife. The two spoke about the plan and Shemorry gave Witness One $1,200 in travel money to go to New Orleans and commit the murder.

The defendant also promised “Witness One” a place to stay while living in Charlottesville and the promise of the two entering the drug trade together.

After speaking with Shemorry, Witness One went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and turned over the tape he had made of the two discussing the murder. At that time, the FBI developed a plan to have Witness One wear a recording device and once again record Shemorry speaking about the murder-for-hire plot.

On that second recording, Witness One told the defendant he had killed his wife and asked Shemorry if this is what he wanted “...she disgraced everything, she disgraced herself, family, me, you. She wreaks people.”

To this, Witness One said, “I killed your wife,” to which Shemorry replied, “We did what we had to do.”

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Charlottesville Police Department. The University of Virginia Police Department and the Greene County Sheriff’s Office also assisted with the case. Criminal Chief for the Western District of Virginia Stephen Pfleger and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey is prosecuting the case for the United States.