Woman guilty of plotting murder

WILLIAMSBURG — A Richmond woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted capital murder for trying to hire a hit man to kill her former lover and his wife over a child-custody battle.

Caren Taylor Pressley Brown, 48, was arrested in August after an undercover Virginia State Police agent posing as a hit man videotaped her offering him $4,000 to commit the murders, James City County Commonwealth’s Attorney Nathan Green said yesterday.

Brown entered her guilty pleas yesterday, the day her trial was to begin. She faces up to two life terms plus $200,000 in fines when she is sentenced May 18 in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court.

Brown owned a successful insurance agency and served on the Fauquier County Chamber of Commerce board of directors before moving to Richmond.

Green said she split up with a boyfriend, Steven Crosby of Warrenton, in the late 1990s. The split was reasonably amicable, Green said, but Brown did not tell Crosby at the time that she was pregnant.

Years later, Brown surprised Crosby by introducing him to his child, Green said, and Crosby, who by then had become involved with his now-wife, sought visitation rights. The court proceedings turned increasingly bitter until a judge in 2005 granted Crosby sole custody, Green said.

Brown founded Children Without a Voice to advocate for women who had lost custody of their children to former spouses. Among those with whom she commiserated was a James City woman who had lost custody of her child to her ex-husband, Green said.

The two women often shared their frustrations, the prosecutor said, but the conversation took a darker turn last summer when Brown proposed traveling to Florida to hire a hit man to kill both of their ex-spouses.

The James City woman — whom Green would not identify — wanted no part of murder and immediately notified state police. They told her to inform Brown that she “had a cousin who knew a guy,” Green said.

Brown met the agent Aug. 1 in James City, provided photos of Crosby and his new wife and offered $2,000 in cash, Green said. The “hit man” was to collect another $2,000 after the killings in Warrenton and then kill the James City woman’s ex-spouse, Green said.

The agent arrested Brown after the videotaped meeting.

Brown originally was charged with two additional counts of solicitation to commit murder, but those charges were dropped in exchange for her guilty plea.