Husband says he tried to back off plot

Harold Stonier doesn't dispute that he hatched a plan two years ago for a hit man to kill his wife, because he thought she was driving him "over the edge." But he argued on the first day of his criminal trial yesterday that he never intended to go through with it.

In a 45-minute opening statement in US District Court in Boston chronicling his life, the Concord telecommunications engineer, acting as his own lawyer, described himself as a former Boy Scout, altar boy, and Marine whose marriage was falling apart in April 2003 when he asked a member of a violent Fall River gang to commit murder.

Stonier, 45, told jurors that he and his wife hadn't had sex in eight months and that she wouldn't cook for him or do his laundry.

He also said that she had jeopardized their children by having three car accidents in three years, scalded him in the face with hot coffee, and kept him awake late at night by refusing to shut off the television in their bedroom.

"She drove me over the edge," said Stonier, dressed in orange prison pants and a tweed suit jacket and tie. "I did have a bad thought, and I did take action on it, but the evidence is going to show, and you're going to see, that I did try to back out of that."

Stonier said that when he wanted to call off the plot, the man he had hired gave him a "lifethreatening ultimatum" to go forward with the plan.

But Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly said it was the second time Stonier had sought to have his wife killed. Stonier, Kelly said, asked a young nephew in Maine to carry out the slaying in 2002 before turning to the Fall River man, an experienced criminal he had read about in the newspaper.

Kelly told jurors that they will hear tapes of Stonier arranging the killing during a meeting with undercover federal agents, as well as evidence that he provided the purported hit man with a key to his home, diagrams of the house, and a list of possible murder scenarios.

According to Kelly, Stonier offered $50,000, a three-carat diamond ring worth $20,000, and even more if the life insurance company determined that the killing was accidental.

Stonier even provided an outline suggesting three separate categories -- "accidental," "infidelity," or "robbery" -- with different ways she could be killed, including being struck by a car, strangled in a motel room, stabbed at a roadside rest area, or falling down cellar stairs, according to Kelly.

"This is a case about a man who wanted to make a deal for death, the death of his wife," Kelly said.

At Stonier's request, his wife, Jamie, who has one child by him and another from a previous relationship, was forced to leave the courtroom after opening statements yesterday, because she will be called as a witness.

Stonier, who was working as project manager at Needhambased General Dynamics Network Systems, admitted yesterday that he contacted Frank "Bruno" Moniz after reading news reports that Moniz was charged with serving as an enforcer for a Fall River gang that had Mafia ties.

Stonier conceded during his opening remarks to the jury that he went looking for Moniz at Tempest Fisheries in New Bedford, where Moniz worked as a truck driver.

When Moniz wasn't there, Stonier said, he left an envelope for him with a plea for help.

Moniz testified that he was out on bail when he received the envelope, which included a paper that said, "I'm a desperate man," and a request for help, with a reference to "wife."

Moniz said he immediately suspected a setup, and a friend contacted a lawyer who alerted federal authorities.

Stephanie Schafer, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, was at the fishery office investigating the case when Stonier called and spoke to Moniz. At Schafer's direction, Moniz arranged a meeting.

Schafer, who posed as Moniz's girlfriend, and another agent, who posed as a hit man, secretly recorded meetings with Stonier and later arrested him. He has been in jail ever since.

Moniz acknowledged that he was given some leniency in exchange for his cooperation in the case; he was sentenced last June to eight years in prison on racketeering and drug charges. But he repeatedly denied yesterday that he ever threatened Stonier.

Saying that it was Stonier who came to him, Moniz said he didn't want any part of the plan.

"If I had been there when you came in the day before, I would have thrown [you] out, and we wouldn't even be here now," Moniz said.

"I didn't ask for this," he said.

Stonier told jurors that he was representing himself because he was unhappy with the advice given by three different lawyers, including one who suggested he claim insanity.

US District Judge Joseph L. Tauro has appointed Cambridge lawyer Sarah Hunt to sit alongside Stonier and offer legal guidance during what is expected to be a five-day trial.