Mother, Daughter Had Fatal Ideas for Mates, Police Say

The mother and daughter had several things in common, San Diego police said: - Each was estranged from her husband, and wanted him dead.

- Each, unaware of the other’s plans, decided to hire a hit man, offering to pay some or all of the fee with proceeds from the husband’s life insurance.

- Each hired the same man--an undercover San Diego police officer.

- Each was arrested and booked at the San Diego County Jail for women at Las Colinas on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder.

“Perhaps, over a period of time, the women developed a dissatisfaction with their husbands,” police spokesman Dave Cohen said of the possible motives. “But there is no indication that there was any combined conspiracy. . . .”

Cohen, who declined to reveal a number of details about the case, would say only that investigators gathered information from sources he declined to disclose that each of the women wanted her husband dead and was interested in hiring someone to do the job.

Cohen said the undercover officer called each woman independently and set up an appointment to meet each of them separately.

The agent met first with the daughter, Venise L. Morris, 27, of La Mesa, at a Paradise Hills shopping center, police said. Morris agreed to pay $5,000 to have her husband killed and gave the undercover officer a $1,000 check as a down payment, saying she would use her husband’s life insurance to pay the balance, according to Cohen.

The mother, Judith L. East, 45, of San Diego, later met the same undercover officer outside the Mission Bay Hilton, Cohen said. She allegedly offered $10,000 and said she would use her husband’s life insurance to pay. Both women allegedly left it up to the hit man as to when, where and how to do the job.

The mother’s husband, Mark East, 31, a sailor stationed here who was on leave in the Los Angeles area, said he was not aware of his wife’s plan, police said. The daughter’s husband, Michael Morris, 41, was not immediately found, Cohen said.

The women are scheduled for arraignment Monday.