Crime & Safety

Metter Hoped Murder-for-Hire Was a "Joke"

Chrsitine Metter, defendant in the Facebook murder-for-hire trial, will continue testifying after lunch

When Patrick Sabo told Christine Metter that her husband was dead, she hoped it was a joke, she testified today.

 after prosecutors say she and her father, Al Zombory, tried to hire a hit man to kill David Metter, her ex-husband. Zombory is to be tried later.

Metter testified this morning that Patrick Sabo, who cooperated with police in the undercover sting that ended in Metter’s arrest, led her to believe that her safety would be in jeopardy if she did not attend a meeting with her father and the man hired to kill her ex-husband. The hit man, “Vinnie”, was an undercover detective.

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She testified that Sabo called her twice the morning of the sting to tell her to come. She told him she would not attend, she testified. Sabo said Vinnie was a “scary” person, he knew where she lived and that he would not be happy if she did not attend the meeting.

She thought that if she did not go, she testified, then Vinnie would be “at my doorstep. That sickened me, that this man who kills people was going to be at my house.”

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When the two picked up Sabo on the way to the meeting, Metter said he told her that her ex-husband was dead and she felt “sick.”

“I hoped it wasn’t him. I hoped it wasn’t real. I hoped it was a joke,” she said.

She added that the scene was unreal. “It was a feeling like I wasn’t living my life. It wasn’t real. It was like looking down on what was happening.”

She also said that her father Al Zombory did not want her to attend the meeting even as late as Friday morning.

Prosecutors argue that Christine agreed that her life insurance policy would be used to pay for the murder, and today she testified that her father had his own copy of the policy and brought it to the meeting.

Metter is in Lake County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

 His trial is scheduled for Jan. 31.

Watch Beachwood Patch for updates as they unfold, and follow @BeachwoodPatch on Twitter for the latest updates.

You can find all of Beachwood Patch’s coverage of this trial here.


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