Husband admits hiring hit man

The conversation where Patrick Scott Shemorry learned for the first time what happened to his wife’s body played on the small black-and-white video clip.

The man known as Witness One, a man whom Shemorry had paid $1,200 and promised a start in the drug trade in return for killing his wife, told Shemorry that he tied her up and put her in a lake after fatally shooting her in New Orleans.

“That [expletive] dropped so easy, man, my stomach dropped,” Witness One said on video.

Shemorry’s expression doesn’t seem to change in the video clips, which were shown Tuesday in Charlottesville’s federal court.

“ … She disgraced everything,” Shemorry said on the video after Witness One asked if this is what he wanted. “She disgraced herself, family, me, you. She wrecks people.”

However, Starla Knight was alive. Witness One was wearing an FBI wire during the conversation about Knight’s supposed death.

For Shemorry, the saga concluded Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to murder for hire and will face between nine and 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 9.

Shemorry and Knight met Witness One in March in New Orleans during a trip, said Julia Dudley, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia.

“Mr. Shemorry and his wife were having marital difficulties,” Dudley said. “They went to New Orleans to get a fresh start on their marriage.”

Contact information for Knight couldn’t be found by press time. Authorities declined to reveal the identity of Witness One.

FBI special agent John Pittman said in court that Witness One gave the couple a false name when they first met. He currently is incarcerated on fraud charges in Virginia and another state.

Shemorry and Knight invited Witness One to live with them for a while, authorities said Tuesday. Eventually, the marriage fell apart and Knight moved to New Orleans in April. Pittman testified that Shemorry started making comments to Witness One about having his wife killed.

Witness One took it upon himself to conceal a micro-cassette recorder to tape one of his conversations with Shemorry.

In calm voices on the audio clips, Witness One asks Shemorry what he wants Witness One to do to Shemorry’s wife. The two are heard repeating the phrases “kill her” and “kill Starla” several times.

Shemorry, dressed in a jail jumpsuit, kept his head down while the clips were played in court.

Witness One went in May to New Orleans, testified Pittman, but not to kill Knight. “He went down there to play the tape for Mr. Shemorry’s wife,” Pittman testified.

When he returned, Witness One approached the FBI with a recording of a previous conversation with Shemorry. The FBI put a video recording device on Witness One, who wore it when he went to tell Shemorry how he killed Knight.

When asked on the video how he would explain Knight’s absence, Shemorry said he’d say that he didn’t know anything. The men were silent for several seconds.

“People are going to be calling,” Witness One said. “They’re going to be calling you and me.”

“Stand strong,” Shemorry said. “Get through it.”

Shemorry is being held at the Central Virginia Regional Jail.