A Pekin woman pleaded guilty Aug. 1 to attempting to solicit the murder of her husband.
Allison L. Salinas, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of murder, receiving a 16-year prison sentence as a result, according to the Tazewell County Circuit Clerk’s Office. She was arrested on July 22 after Pekin police investigated allegations made by a boyfriend that she tried to kill her husband, either with his help or through other means.
Court documents indicate that the former boyfriend – a man from Dallas – contacted the Pekin Police Department in February 2024 to report that Salinas had asked him to kill her husband. No progress was made in the investigation until July 9, when a video was posted to Facebook that implicated Salinas in the solicitation plot.
Detectives contacted the man, who said that the pair had dated as teenagers and engaged in a long-distance relationship since 2021. A short time after the renewal of their relationship, the man said that Salinas had learned of an inheritance he had received, which he said resulted in her trying to manipulate him for her benefit.
Shortly thereafter, Salinas began discussing her desire to leave her husband for him without having to split their assets. He said that the idea of murder wasn’t brought up until November 2023 or December 2023, a concept that he was uncomfortable with. He tried deflecting the conversation, as he said that she was insinuating that he kill her husband, but he eventually told Salinas that he had no interest in any murder.
After his initial call to Pekin police in February 2024, the man began recording Salinas’ phone calls. Salinas repeatedly asked him if he had found someone to kill her husband, which led to him lying and saying that he had contacted the U.S. Secret Service about the murder plot.
The detailed conversations continued for over a year until the Facebook post on July 9, which was created by the man as a way of bringing attention to the issue. Pekin police received a pair of recorded phone conversations between Salinas and the boyfriend, along with screenshots of a text chain.
Court documents indicate that Salinas spoke of hiring some old friends of his father could be used to facilitate her husband’s death, saying that he was counting on her boyfriend to make that happen. The text chain showed that on May 27, 2024, she sent him pictures of her husband, followed by a message saying “Take care of this.”
She followed up by saying that the couple had gotten into a fight regarding a business that the pair had owned, ending the text by saying, “please make him go away.”
Two months later, Salinas sent her boyfriend another series of texts showing screenshots of a Google search she did about whether a spouse could testify against their significant other, with a highlighted response showing that someone could not be forced to testify against their spouse in a criminal case.
Detectives also spoke with a friend of the pair who had been present for a phone call between the two in 2023. Sitting in the passenger seat of Salinas’ car, she overheard a conversation in which they discussed finding a “ghost” – a slang term for hitman – to kill her husband.
She also told police Salinas had discussed sneaking shellfish into her husband’s food, as he was allergic to it.
Police interviewed Salinas on July 22, where she said that her boyfriend wouldn’t have had any indication that she was serious about the plot and indicated that she first learned about spousal immunity through an ex-husband, a man named Delbert Mills who had been found guilty of killing his wife in Texas in 2003.
Salinas and Mills were married after the murder, but told Pekin police she had nothing to do with the death of his ex-wife, saying that she didn’t learn about until after the marriage. She also noted that Mills had been pushing for the wedding so she wouldn’t have to testify in court about the matter.
Later, Salinas admitted to the text exchanges with her boyfriend, saying that she understood the context of what was sent. She was taken into custody the same day.
An arraignment had been set for July 31 before her guilty plea.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Pekin woman pleads guilty in plot to kill her husband
Reporting by Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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