COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Authorities say a Collierville attorney has been charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill his estranged wife.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says Fred Auston Wortman III was arrested Friday when he met with a TBI agent posing as a potential hitman. TBI says Wortman gave the agent personal information about his wife and a down payment for the killing.
TBI says Wortman is being charged with solicitation of first-degree murder and he is being held in the Fayette County Jail on $15 million bond.
TBI says it began investigating the 39-year-old Wortman after someone contacted law enforcement and reported Wortman asked him to find someone to kill his wife.
A phone message left with Wortman's law firm was not immediately returned.
(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
