Texas man hired to kill wife warns her instead

DALLAS — Roxane Sterling didn't know the man standing in her Allen, Texas, bedroom.

But he had been hired, he said, to kill her.

"Your husband wants you murdered," he told the eight-months pregnant woman. Then he told her to call police.

The husband, Albert Jackson Sterling II, was arrested Nov. 22 in New Mexico on two counts of criminal solicitation of capital murder — one for his wife and another for the unborn child. Police said he arranged to have his wife killed while he was away.

Albert Sterling took an afternoon flight Nov. 21 to visit family in Alamogordo, N.M., police said. The same afternoon, his wife arrived at their $405,000 brick home to find the stranger in the couple's master bedroom.

Albert Sterling, 38, is being held in lieu of $1 million bail in the Otero, N.M., County Jail. Neither he nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

Neighbors said Roxane Sterling, 37, fled to Louisiana to be with her family.

The intruder, whose name has not been released, has not been charged with a crime, police said.

"He did not go there with the intent to murder her," said Capt. Robert Flores of the Allen Police Department. "He went with the intent to warn her."

The man was not armed.

"It was an acquaintance of [Albert Sterling's], but he's not a hit man," Flores said. "It's just someone he knew ... he thought would do this for him."

Flores said Sterling offered the man a large sum of money but less than $50,000. He said Sterling assisted him with entry to the home.

Albert Sterling apparently has no previous convictions in Texas.

White Christmas lights decorated the sidewalk and stone staircase to the family's home Monday. A "Support Our Troops" sign hung in one of several flower gardens in the front yard.