Aiken County Woman Pleads Guilty in Murder-for-Hire Plot

COLUMBIA, SC—United States Attorney W. Walter Wilkins stated that Judy W. Dickson, age 42, of Salley, South Carolina, plead guilty to an Indictment charging her with hiring a man to murder her estranged husband and his son. United States District Judge Margaret B. Seymour accepted the guilty plea late yesterday, one day before jury selection was scheduled for the case.

According to an FBI Agent’s testimony during the guilty plea hearing, Ms. Dickson agreed last May to pay David Hutto, her boyfriend at the time, a large sum of money plus expenses to burn the Shallote, North Carolina, home of her estranged husband, Raymond Dickson, and his son, Ryan “Bugaboo” Dickson, while they slept inside. Ms. Dickson was concerned about her divorce settlement and wanted the proceeds of her husband’s life insurance policy. Hutto told Ms. Dickson he would carry out the plan, but instead alerted the victim, Raymond Dickson, and later went to the FBI. Prior to contacting the FBI, Hutto and Raymond Dickson made three taped calls to Ms. Dickson, wherein Hutto and Ms. Dickson discussed the plans to kill her husband, including Hutto starting a fire in the crawl space of Raymond Dickson’s home with pine straw and gasoline. The FBI also monitored one taped call wherein Ms. Dickson again approved the plan to murder her husband.

Ms. Dickson will remain in custody awaiting sentencing. She faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a $250,000.00 fine.

Mr. Wilkins stated that the case was investigated by agents of the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Robert C. Jendron, Jr., of the Columbia office was assigned the case for prosecution.