Gwen Bergman was found guilty Friday of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband.
U.S. District Judge Walker D. Miller announced his decision after presiding over the bench trial for four days.
“I am convinced the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Miller said.
Bergman did not react to the verdict while in the courtroom.
The 52-year-old Pitkin County woman was charged with using interstate commerce, the mail and wire transfers, to commit murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
She searched the Internet in 2004 to find a hitman who would take $30,000 to kill her ex-husband, John LaCouture of Aspen. Bergman used her mother’s retirement fund to pay for the job.
LaCouture was not harmed because the men Bergman tried to hire — one of them a retired Denver police officer — alerted authorities and cooperated with the investigation.
An affidavit says that Bergman had tried to hire a hitman in the past. She paid that man $50,000, but he took off with the money and did not complete the job.
Bergman’s sentencing date was not set, but she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Bergman first asked Jerry Eden, the owner of a personal-protection agency in Florida, for a bodyguard to protect her and her then- 6-year-old son.
But LaCouture had sole custody of the couple’s son.
“It was suggested that it was really to provide security for the child involved,” Miller said. “It became clear the purpose was to hire someone to kill Mr. LaCouture.”
The judge also said that Eden repeatedly asked Bergman if she wanted to change her mind about the hit, but she never wavered.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
