A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the conviction of a Tallahassee woman who was accused of seeking her estranged husband’s death in a murder-for-hire plot.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by Gretchen Buselli, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted on a murder-for-hire charge and a charge of making false statements to investigators.
The probe began after Christopher Colon, a Montana resident who was a former boyfriend of Buselli, reported to police in June 2021 that she had asked him to murder her husband, Bradley, Thursday’s ruling said.
Colon began recording phone calls, and Gretchen Buselli mailed him two $500 pre-paid debit cards for travel expenses. Later, Colon told her he had a friend “Paul” in Florida who would carry out the murder.
“Paul” was an undercover FBI agent, and Gretchen Buselli agreed to pay him $5,000 upfront and $20,000 after the murder, according to the ruling. Gretchen Buselli subsequently left $5,000 for “Paul” at the Cascades Park amphitheater in Tallahassee.
In September 2021, investigators contacted Gretchen Buselli and said her estranged husband had disappeared. During questioning, she said she would “never ask anyone to do something like this,” the ruling said. Investigators revealed that “Paul” was an undercover agent and that they knew about the murder-for-hire plan and arrested her.
Gretchen Buselli accused her estranged husband of sexually abusing their daughter — an allegation that the ruling said had been investigated and rejected by the Tallahassee Police Department, the Children’s Home Society of Florida, the Florida Department of Children and Families and a guardian ad litem.
The appeal focused on jury instructions during Gretchen Buselli’s trial, including whether they should have included an instruction about justifiable homicide or justifiable use of deadly force under Florida law, the ruling said. That issue, at least in part, involved the allegation of sexual abuse. But the appeals court upheld a district judge’s decision against giving the instructions.
“Given the trial evidence, no reasonable jury could have concluded Buselli’s conduct constituted justifiable or excusable homicide or the justifiable use of deadly force under Florida law,” said the ruling, written by Judge Frank Hull and joined by Judges Adalberto Jordan and Barbara Lagoa.
