When Audra Lynne Symbalisty used the phrase “until loss of life do us half,” she was in a gasoline station car parking zone in Carstairs, Alta., about an hour’s drive north of Calgary, making an attempt to rent successful man to kill her husband on the couple’s 18th marriage ceremony anniversary.
Audra Symbalisty needed to “half” together with her husband by arranging for his loss of life, however she had no concept she’d engaged an undercover police officer, not successful man-for-hire.
On Monday, Symbalisty pleaded responsible to counselling an undercover police officer to commit the homicide of her partner, Don Symbalisty.
The 60-year-old grandmother sat within the prisoner’s field in a navy blue jail-issued sweatsuit, together with her greying blonde hair piled on high of her head.
‘What you’ve got completed to your loved ones’
Court docket of King’s Bench Justice Michele Hollins accepted a joint submission for a five-year jail sentence. With credit score for the time she has already served, Symbalisty has about three and a half years left on her sentence.
In handing down the sentence, Hollins addressed Symbalisty instantly.
“A part of your therapeutic, I anticipate, shall be coming nose to nose with what you’ve got completed to your loved ones,” stated the decide.
Particulars of the crime have been learn aloud in courtroom from an agreed assertion of information (ASF) ready by prosecutors Elaine Ng and Ryan Ziegler and defence lawyer Allan Fay.
Justice Hollins heard that in 2021, Don Symbalisty bought a life insurance coverage coverage which might have paid his spouse almost $500,000 within the occasion of his loss of life.
Acquaintance goes to RCMP
Don was a long-haul trucker who incessantly drove between Canada and the U.S. for work.
By early 2024, the couple’s relationship had deteriorated and “the 2 have been inattentive and verbally abusive to at least one one other,” in response to the ASF.
Over a six-week interval in early 2024, Audra Symbalisty had a number of conversations about her husband with an acquaintance who took his considerations to Didsbury RCMP on Feb. 12, 2024.
His assertion to police led to a two-and-a-half week investigation involving an undercover police officer (UCO) posing as a contract killer who was launched to Audra over textual content message.
The 2 made a plan to fulfill in Carstairs on Feb. 24, 2024.
Fb anniversary put up
That day was the Symbalisty’s 18th marriage ceremony anniversary and Audra posted to Fb: “18 years. So exhausting to consider. Completely satisfied Anniversary Hon. Cannot await our lovely supper date. Whoot whoot.”
In the meantime, she was in a gasoline station car parking zone, providing an undercover officer $5,000 to kill her husband.
In the course of the meet-up, Symbalisty instructed the UCO her husband was “an issue” who she needed “gone.”
“She didn’t need ‘something non permanent,’ ‘any hospital stuff,’ or ‘any damaged legs’ — she needed it to be ‘simply everlasting,'” reads the ASF.
Symbalisty confirmed she needed to rent a “hit man.”
“I’ve watched numerous totally different films, like the place you rent individuals as successful man and various things like that,” she instructed the UCO.
She expressed that she didn’t need the killing to occur on the household dwelling and instructed the UCO that she did not need him to share too many particulars of the deliberate killing.
“The primary individual that’s going to get questioned and shit is me,” she instructed the officer. “I do not need to know something about something. All the pieces shall be a shock.”
‘The homicide machine’
In the midst of the dialog, Symbalisty gave her husband’s identify, occupation and outlined his trucking journey routes in an effort to assist facilitate the homicide.
The 2 met once more the subsequent day, this time within the Olds Canadian Tire car parking zone. Symbalisty handed over $1,000 in money — an agreed-upon 20 per cent deposit — in addition to photographs of her husband and his truck, “so he would know with certainty who to kill,” in response to the ASF.
She instructed the UCO she needed Don’s loss of life to look unintended or self-inflicted and that she needed the killing to turn into a cold-case homicide.
The UCO instructed Symbalisty that when he obtained the cash for the contract killing “the homicide machine was going” and he would both “put a bullet” within the sufferer’s head or “run him over.”
Symbalisty replied, “obtained it.”
He gave her a number of possibilities to again out, however every time Symbalisty confirmed she needed him to hold out the plan.
‘A fractured marriage’
Three days later, Symbalisty was arrested and charged by RCMP and has been in custody since her arrest.
Earlier than her arrest, Audra Symbalisty was a hairdresser in Carstairs and likewise offered homeopathic merchandise.
The previous couple had a blended household of grownup youngsters.
Whereas the precise motive cannot be confirmed by the Crown, Fay famous that after Symbalisty’s 39-year-old daughter died following a wrestle with addictions, “a fractured marriage grew to become much more fractured.”
Audra constructed a mantlepiece memorial for her daughter which “elicited unkind feedback from Mr. Symbalisty,” Fay instructed the courtroom.
“She appreciates that what she did was mistaken to its very core … and unforgivable,” stated Fay. “She accepts she should bear the implications of that.”
‘My mind hijacked me’
When given the prospect to handle the courtroom, Symbalisty stated she’d been “struggling in my very own silence” and “did one thing I by no means thought I might do.”
“It was like my mind hijacked me,” she stated. “I want I might return in time.”
Symbalisty’s two daughters wrote sufferer affect statements detailing their devastation.
Daughter Shayna Anisman described her world “crashing” and her household “disintegrating.”
Pregnant on the time of her mom’s arrest, Anisman stated “she threw away our complete world and for what.”
‘Goodbye, Audra’
Daughter Katrina Lisoway listed a number of the questions she’s been left to ponder.
“Did you actually suppose you have been so sensible you’ll outsmart the system and get away with this?” she requested her mom.
“How and why might a mom, a grandmother, be so egocentric and be so keen to sacrifice the whole lot?”
Don Symbalisty was not in courtroom for his former partner’s plea however he wrote an announcement which was learn aloud by the prosecution.
Don wrote that whereas he had “combined feelings” and felt “betrayed on the highest stage” he additionally stated he forgives Audra.
“I noticed in these circumstances I have no idea what Audra is able to,” wrote Don.
“It is completed. Goodbye, Audra.”
Source link