Left inset: Stephanie Russell with a patient in 2003 (photo from letter of support). Right: Russell in most recent mug shot (Oldham County Detention Center)
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence a Louisville, Kentucky, pediatrician to the maximum punishment for stalking and an attempted murder-for-hire plot on her ex-husband’s life, alleging evidence emerged after Stephanie Russell pleaded guilty that showed she only continued to seek out a killer through women inmates.
According to the government, Russell, a 53-year-old former KidzLife Pediatrics professional remembered for having a Disney-themed office, failed in false “efforts to have her ex-husband branded as a domestic abuser and child sex-abuser in the course of the family court litigation,” leading her ex to be awarded “sole custody” of their two children in 2022.
What followed, as Russell’s guilty plea shows, was a series of bizarre solicitations of murder, even by a “death spell.” WhatsApp messages showed Russell wanted her ex R.C. hexed by “a death spell” in the months before her 2022 arrest for trying to pay $7,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill the victim.
“What is your success rate? Your price? Your guarantee?” Russell asked, before a woman identified as “mama” answered: “death success rates are 85%.”
The texts showed Russell continued seeking out “a death spell” from a “Spiritual Healer” with a different phone number than the first, before turning to a third contact identified as “Sk.”
“The only way we will have peace is if he dies,” Russell insisted to “Sk,” who answered: “killing him etc is going to harm you and family as he has some type of protection on him.”
Center: Stephanie Russell (Oldham County Detention Center). Inset left and right: two text messages about obtaining a death spell for her ex-husband (defense filing).
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky has said that Russell was caught in no small part because, in July 2021, she “began soliciting multiple KidzLife employees, asking if they knew someone who would be willing to kill R.C.” Russell, the owner and operator of the Louisville-area pediatric practice, was stopped in May 2022 once an undercover fed posing as a hitman recorded conversations he had with her.
“I want him to be completely gone from my life, yes,” Russell confirmed, before the FBI agent suggested making her ex’s death look like a suicide.
“Yes, that would be amazing,” Russell responded.
Under the plea agreement, Russell faces at least eight years in prison but no more than 12, but prosecutors argued Monday that the punishment should be the maximum — based on her alleged conduct behind bars after the plea.
“The day after Russell entered her guilty plea, the United States was notified that Russell, who is in pre-trial detention, was soliciting other female prisoners in a renewed effort to find someone to murder her ex-husband,” prosecutors said. “On July 9, 2024, this information was provided to the U.S. Probation Office with the United States’ objections to the initial Presentence Investigation Report.”
“Based upon the probable cause to believe that Russell had engaged in ongoing violations of state or federal law after she entered her guilty plea on April 22, 2024, and pursuant to the express provision of paragraph 10 of the parties’ Plea Agreement, the United States objected to Russell receiving any reduction for acceptance of responsibility,” the feds continued.
Prosecutors said they have evidence that another inmate in pretrial detention went so far as to send a letter “at Russell’s behest” to that detainee’s boyfriend — “postmarked April 22, 2024, the date of Russell’s guilty plea” — inquiring about whether the man knew someone who could or would kill Russell’s ex.
“The letter included the name and address of Russell’s ex-husband, personal identifying information which, to the government’s knowledge, had not been made publicly available either as part of the federal criminal prosecution or the family court litigation,” the feds said, asking U.S. District Judge David Hale for the 12-year sentence due to Russell’s “ongoing conduct, and lack of acceptance of responsibility[.]”
Russell’s defense attorney Michael Mazzoli has long argued that the aforementioned texts soliciting the occult showed his client’s “mental health was severely disturbed,” and the defense sentencing memo argued much the same.
“Ms. Russell was (and is) mentally ill; at most, though, this reality can only mitigate, not excuse, her offenses,” the filing said.
On the latest allegations, the memo said the defense “does not concede the truthfulness of the alleged post-plea misconduct by Ms. Russell,” but “nevertheless agrees that incarceration for any term within the plea agreement’s contemplated range would satisfy the requirement of a punishment which is ‘sufficient, but not greater than necessary’ to meet the objectives of criminal punishment in this case.”
Attached to the memo were numerous letters of support for Russell, some from family, others from colleagues, a number from parents of children she cared for (some of whom shared photos of Russell with their kids), and at least one academic advisor. The recurring theme of the letters was that Russell was great at her job and her criminal case came as a shock to those who long knew her.
One letter, from a self-described cousin and “best friend” of Russell’s for “most of her life,” said she has “never witnessed a more acrimonious divorce and custody battle.”
“However, I realize that what she ultimately did was a crime,” the letter said. “It is my belief, after watching it all unfold from the front row, that she was under true extreme emotional and mental distress. All of these events were so completely out of character for her.”
Sentencing was previously set for the morning of July 31.
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