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FBI, Birmingham Division
Posted by Rahkia Nance, Malcomb Daniels
September 17, 2009 3:58 PM
Barbara Louise Patterson is held in the Shellby County Jail as part of a murder-for-hire plot in Shelby County.
A Columbian woman has been charged in connection with a murder plot, Shelby County court records show.
Barbara Louise Patterson, 61, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. She is in the Shelby County Jail with bond set at $250,000.
A criminal complaint filed in Shelby County District Court accuses Patterson of providing Kimberly Dawn McGuffie with Lexapro, an antidepressant prescription drug, to combine with other drugs to commit murder.
Last week McGuffie, 42, was arrested after hiring who she thought was a hit man and providing him with Xanax, methadone and morphine to slip into her ex-husband’s drink, authorities said. McGuffie was charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. She is in the Shelby County jail on $545,000 bond.