Woman collapses after guilty verdict

VISTA — A woman collapsed in a California courtroom after hearing she had been found guilty in what authorities called a botched murder-for-hire plot targeting her husband, who was shot but survived.

Diana Lovejoy and her firearms instructor, Weldon McDavid Jr., were convicted separately Monday of charges including conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

There were gasps when Lovejoy passed out and fell, and her family members sobbed and asked for someone to help her. Judge Sim von Kalinowski cleared the courtroom so the 45-year-old could receive medical attention.

A TV reporter who attended to Lovejoy before paramedics wheeled her out on a gurney told the newspaper it appeared that she had been overcome by shock.

After court resumed, the same jury then returned guilty verdicts against McDavid. As his family watched, the 50year-old put his head in his hands and cried.

Lovejoy, of Carlsbad, faces at least 25 years to life in prison. McDavid, who pulled the trigger, faces 50 years to life. Sentencing was set for Dec. 12.

At the time of the shooting, Lovejoy and her then-husband, Greg Mulvihill, were in the midst of heated divorce. The two sides reached an agreement that they would share custody of their young son and that Lovejoy would pay Mulvihill $120,000. That payment was due weeks after he was shot.

“She didn’t want to share custody, and she didn’t want to give $120,000 to her husband,” jury forewoman Erin Reed told the Union-Tribune.

The newspaper said there was no dispute that McDavid pulled the trigger and shot Mulvihill on a dark dirt path in Carlsbad on Sept. 1, 2016.