Algonquin woman gets 22 years for murder plot

An Algonquin woman has been ordered to spend 22 years behind bars for soliciting the murder of her estranged husband.

Sherrieann Remsik-Miller, 47, was sentenced Thursday in Kane County Circuit Court by Judge Thomas E. Mueller. She was convicted of solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation of murder after a bench trial in June.

Assistant State's Attorney Nemura Pencyla said Remsik-Miller tried to hire a homeless man in the spring of 2008 to kill her husband by strapping an explosive to the bottom of his truck or shooting him twice in the head.

Once she was charged, he said, she turned her attention to having the homeless man killed to keep him from testifying.

"This woman is a one-person crime spree," Pencyla said.

Mueller said Remsik-Miller's lack of a prior criminal history was a "very large factor" in sentencing her to 22 years. But he said the sentence also should deter others from committing the same crime.

"It's a horrific offense," the judge said. "This was not a situation where we have a drug deal gone south, where one drug dealer takes out a contract on another. This was a husband and wife - with child, with relatives."

In a statement to the court, Remsik-Miller continued to deny that she meant harm to her husband, Gerald, who has since divorced her.

She said she was only "venting" in secretly recorded conversations in which she told a homeless man when and how to commit the murder in exchange for $30,000.

"We were plotting it out like it was a TV show," she said. "I'm sorry, but it's the truth."

Gerald Miller's niece, Bridget Chavez, said her uncle has feared for his safety since learning of Remsik-Miller's plan to have him murdered at Chavez's home in Arlington Heights, apparently with the expectation of a large insurance payout. She said her uncle, who did not attend Thursday's hearing, plans to move away and cease contact with relatives for their own safety upon his ex-wife's release from prison.

Remsik-Miller, who had faced 20 to 40 years, must serve at least 85 percent of her sentence, or a little more than 161/2 years after credit for 698 days served in the Kane County jail.