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Main image: Stephanie Russell (Oldham County Detention Center); inset left and right: two text messages about obtaining a death spell for her ex-husband (defense filing).
The murder-for-hire prosecution of a previously well-liked Kentucky pediatrician whose former medical office boasted a “Disney theme throughout” has grown decidedly weirder in recent weeks.
In late February, defense counsel for Dr. Stephanie M. Russell, 53, filed a series of WhatsApp text messages on the federal docket that show she attempted to enlist the services of several would-be occult practitioners to kill her ex-husband with a “death spell.”
Russell faces one count of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire after she allegedly agreed to pay $7,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Rick Crabtree, her former spouse, after he was awarded sole custody of their two children.
Prosecutors allege she paid half on retainer to the fake assassin before she was arrested in May 2022. But, according to the defense, her first stop, several months prior, was the world of the supernatural.
“What is your success rate? Your price? Your guarantee?” Russell asks in one message containing a flurry of questions.
A woman identified as “mama” replies: “death success rates are 85%.” She then tells Russell the “price depends on the number of people” and that she offers a “100% guarantee or money back.”
“Do you use sacrifice?” Russell later asks her.
The woman replies: “no.”
Peddling her wares at $580 per death spell, Russell asks the woman in the first text chain if payment can be made after the fact. The woman replies that she only works on a “cash basis.”
Russell also asks additional questions about the nature of the magic that will be consulted – including one pointed reference to Quimbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion involving animal sacrifice.
“It’s a death spell my dear not a love spell,” the woman replies at one point. “i can’t tell you inside details but i will do your job.”
A series of messages with another number follow a similar script.
“Looking for a death spell,” Russell says.
A person identified as “Spiritual Healer” replies: “Yes I will cast death Spell for you.”
Again, however, Russell refuses to pay for anything beforehand.
“Can I please pay after?” the pediatrician asks. “I cannot afford to pay without results.” Later, Russell pleads her case in two more messages and adds: “Please help me,” and “I promise you can trust me.”
The spiritual healer is willing to go down to $150 advance payment, saying they need to buy some items beforehand in order to perform the ritual. Russell again balks and talks the person down to $50, then later provides her ex-husband’s name and photo. Once again, she asks if the death magic will entail Quimbanda. Once again, the other person says it will not. This spellcaster says they will use Voodoo.
In a third exchange with yet another number, a person identified as “Sk” advises Russell against using a death spell.
“The only way we will have peace is if he dies,” Russell says.
Sk replies: “killing him etc is going to harm you and family as he has some type of protection on him.”
The doctor also quizzes the third occultist on their brand with some of her preferred questions. She asks about sacrifice and: “Do you know Quimbanda?” Sk says they practice “indian vedic magic.”
Sk, after being supplied a photo and name, says they were able to determine Russell’s ex-husband is “into black magic.”
This alleged revelation piques Russell’s interest but appears to offer Sk a way out of performing the death spell. They try and convince Russell to purchase a “banishing spell only” to no avail.
The defendant is adamant.
“Is there anything you can do to cause the death?” she asks.
In a motion in limine, Russell’s defense lawyers explain they submitted the text messages to show their client seriously believed her ex-husband was a danger to her children and that she lacked the mental capacity to be convicted of murder-for-hire.
“Ms. Russell’s mental health was severely disturbed, from both the empirical and clinical perspectives, when she engaged in the conduct alleged in the indictment,” the motion reads. “In March 2022, Ms. Russell reached out to self-described spiritualists for help, asking (with all credulity) for a ‘death spell’ on her ex-husband.”
Ultimately, the defense aims to introduce testimony from forensic psychiatrist Walter Butler, M.D. who will testify that Russell was not sane, and not legally culpable, by the time she paid the faux hit man.
A report by Butler repeatedly refers to Russell as “delusional.”
The government opposes citing Butler as an expert witness.
The defendant has been in jail pending trial since her arrest. A failed attempt to secure bail cited her patients’ need for their doctor, but a judge determined she was still a danger to her ex-husband.
Trial in the case is slated to begin on April 22 in Louisville.
