Woman who plotted husband’s 1984 murder is recommended for parole
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A woman who conspired with her lover to kill her husband in 1984 and later escaped from prison has been recommended for parole, over the objections of prosecutors in Orange County.
Jeanette Lynn Hughes, 58, was convicted of plotting to murder her husband, James Hughes, as he slept in their Huntington Beach home in January 1984.
On Friday, a judge deemed Hughes suitable for parole after serving 26 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Hughes initially told police that an intruder shot her husband as he slept and stole the family car. Police later stopped Hughes’ boyfriend traveling in the car, which he hadn’t abandoned as planned because he’d lost the keys to his own car.
She later confessed that her lover, Adam Ramirez, fired two small-caliber bullets into her husband’s temple because they wanted his $442,000 life insurance policy.
Hughes had signaled to Ramirez when it was safe to enter the home and later concocted a story about a burglar shooting her husband and hitting her.
After three trials, Hughes was convicted of conspiracy and murder in December 1985.
In 1990 while serving time at a women’s prison in Frontera, she escaped by convincing a correctional officer to help her. The two were eventually detained at the El Paso airport. Prosecutors said she’d previously tried to escape by cutting the bars to her cell. The parole recommendation will now be reviewed by the governor’s office.
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