Wife arrested in plot to kill husband

This wasn't your typical family affair.

A woman accused of orchestrating a highway murder plot against her husband was motivated not only by money but also a romantic relationship with their adopted son, police said.

The strange case of the attempted killing of Robert Bessey, 49, took a turn for the stranger Monday with release of a police report after the arrest of his estranged wife, Amy Pearson.

Pearson, 42, also known as Amy Bessey, was arrested Friday by Las Vegas police on charges of attempted murder, battery and conspiracy to commit murder against her husband.

Police said she enlisted the help of the couple's adopted son, Michael Bessey, 21, and her brother, Richard Pearson, 39, to kill her husband as he drove south on Interstate 15 near the Valley of Fire on Nov. 14.

Robert Bessey was hit in the neck by a shot fired from a gold SUV that pulled next to his car about 4:30 a.m., but he survived. He recognized the SUV as belonging to his brother-in-law's girlfriend.

Michael Bessey and Richard Pearson were charged in the murder plot last year. Police hadn't implicated Amy Pearson until Friday, but she had been a prime suspect for months.

The primary motive appeared to have been a $250,000 insurance policy on Robert Bessey's life set to expire after the couple's divorce was finalized, but the relationship between mother and son also appeared to be a factor, police said.

Robert Bessey told detectives that "Michael and Amy were very close," which prompted the divorce. Family members had told Robert Bessey that "Amy had an unnatural relationship with Michael and was too close," the report said.

After Michael Bessey's arrest, Robert Bessey told police he read a letter from his son to his wife that begged Robert Bessey to drop the charges against him.

In that letter, Michael Bessey told his mother "I miss touching you," the report said.

A witness who knew Michael Bessey and Amy Pearson said they often went to nightclubs together and would "grab each other's buttocks." And Michael Bessey's ex-girlfriend told police that "Amy is the reason her and Michael broke up," the report said.

In a recorded jail phone conversation between Michael Bessey and his ex-girlfriend, she is heard saying they would discuss something later "when you're home in your bed with your Mom or I."

Yet nothing directly implicated Amy Pearson in the plot until, authorities allege, Michael Bessey told a cellmate that three people planned the shooting and were shocked his dad survived, the report said.

Michael Bessey told the cellmate he and Amy Pearson were to receive $400,000 in total benefits. He was going to buy a truck, his mother was going to pay off her mortgage, and the two "would never have to work again," the report said.

When the cellmate asked why Michael Bessey wanted his father dead, he told him Robert Bessey physically abused his mother and mentally abused the family.

Michael Bessey said Robert Bessey had also accused him of sleeping in the same bed as Amy Pearson, the report said.

Michael Bessey told the cellmate he planned to blame the crime on his uncle Richard Pearson, who recently had been released from prison, by claiming Richard Pearson forced him to participate at gunpoint.

Police said the cellmate knew details of the case that hadn't been publicized and offered to testify against Michael Bessey.

In the hours after the shooting, Amy Pearson cooperated with police and identified Richard Pearson and Michael Bessey in a video taken at a gas station near the scene.

After her son's arrest in November, she told the Review-Journal "I have no idea what's going on. I wish I did." She is scheduled to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on Wednesday.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.