Woman pleads guilty in Circleville murder-for-hire case

CIRCLEVILLE — The former aspiring model who captivated a courtroom with her eye-catching outfits and sultry behavior — grabbing international headlines and making documentary television appearances because of it — wasn’t quite the same confident showwoman Wednesday as she pleaded guilty to hiring a hit man to kill a woman she perceived as her enemy.

Nevertheless, 35-yearold Tara Arbogast (formerly known as Tara Lambert) wasn’t exactly repentant, either. As Pickaway County Common Pleas Judge P. Randall Knece told the courtroom that Arbogast had in July 2015 paid a man a $125 down payment to execute Kellie Cooke, Arbogast shook her head no and rolled her eyes.

Then she pleaded guilty anyway to a single count of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

Knece sentenced her to five years in prison. Arbogast gets credit for about 16 months of time served, though, because she had already been convicted of the charge in January 2016. Last year, the Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned that conviction because of an error in the language in the original charges and Arbogast was freed from what had been a seven-year sentence.

Pickaway County prosecutors re-indicted Arbogast, and that’s what put everyone back in court Wednesday. Five years was a sentence agreed upon by both prosecutors and defense attorney Sam Shamansky.

Cooke said the outcome was reasonable and she and her family were anxious to get this ordeal behind them.