The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the 15-year prison sentence of Gretchen Buselli, a Tallahassee woman convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting her estranged husband.
Buselli’s appeal, which argued for jury instructions on justifiable homicide due to allegations of sexual abuse against her daughter, was rejected by the court.
The case originated in June 2021, when Buselli’s former boyfriend, Christopher Colon, informed authorities of her plans to have her husband killed.
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Colon, cooperating with law enforcement, recorded conversations and received payments from Buselli for travel expenses.
The plot deepened when Buselli agreed to pay an undercover FBI agent, posing as a hitman, $5,000 upfront and an additional $20,000 upon completion of the murder. She was arrested after leaving the initial payment at a designated location.
During questioning, Buselli denied involvement in the scheme despite investigators’ knowledge of her conversations and actions.
The court ultimately found that the evidence presented at trial did not support her claims of justifiable homicide under Florida law, given the lack of substantiation for the sexual abuse allegations against her husband.
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“Given the trial evidence, no reasonable jury could have concluded Buselli’s conduct constituted justifiable or excusable homicide or the justifiable use of deadly force under Florida law,” said the ruling, written by Judge Frank Hull and joined by Judges Adalberto Jordan and Barbara Lagoa.
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