As I Lay Dying's Tim Lambesis Sentenced for Plotting to Kill Wife

By Daniel Taylor, Esq. on May 20, 2014 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

As frontman for acclaimed metal band As I Lay Dying, Tim Lambesis was known for his brutal vocal delivery and imposing stage presence.

Now, he's perhaps even more well known for a more dubious distinction: convicted felon. Lambesis was sentenced to six years in prison Friday in a San Diego courtroom after pleading guilty to felony solicitation of murder.

The Sound and the Fury

Lambesis was convicted under a California Penal Code section that makes it a felony to, "with the intent that the crime be committed, solicit another to commit or join in the commission of murder."

Lambesis admitted, as part of his plea deal, to giving $1,000 to an undercover sheriff's deputy (posing as a hit man) as a down payment for killing his wife; an additional $19,000 was to be paid after the murder was committed. Lambesis also provided photos of his wife, gate access codes to the couple's home, and dates when he would be with the couple's three adopted children and would thus have an alibi.

U-T San Diego reports that Lambesis' lawyers, as they did during the trial, pinned the blame for Lambesis' strange behavior on his admitted steroid use. And while prosecutors sought the maximum nine-year prison term, the judge sentenced Lambesis to six.

Criminal Solicitation

In Lambesis' case, the man who he thought was a hit man was actually a law-enforcement officer who never intended to commit the murder. Unfortunately for Lambesis, the crime of solicitation only requires a request that someone commit a crime made with the intent for that person to commit the crime, regardless of whether the person being asked intends to commit the crime or not.

On a more positive note: In the aftermath of Lambesis' conviction, the other members of As I Lay Dying have been doing some (legal) solicitation of their own. They've formed a new band called Wovenwar with the former singer of fellow metal outfit Oh, Sleeper.

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