Former Crossville doctor and Cumberland County Commission member Dr. Robert Mayfield pleaded guilty in a Sardis (MS) courtroom Friday and received a 15-year sentence with nine years suspended and six years to serve at 85 percent.
Mayfield, 59, was facing a maximum 20-year prison sentence for attempting to hire a Batesville, MS police detective to kill the ex-husband of a woman whom the doctor was accused of having an affair with. The ex-husband, Jefferey Webb, had filed a suit against Mayfield claiming, among other things, that Mayfield was responsible for "alienation of affection."
The former Crossville doctor appeared in court in leg irons and accepted a plea agreement hammered out between his attorney and state prosecutors.
The plea concluded a fast-moving case. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was contacted in mid-December about the possible murder-for-hire scheme and three weeks later made an arrest in the case. The plea comes five weeks after Mayfield was arrested by state and local authorities in the parking lot of a local Lowe's store Jan. 25.
Mayfield had traveled to the Batesville Lowe's to meet with the man he thought he was hiring for $5,000 to kill Webb. Evidence against Mayfield includes a 17-minute conversation between the doctor and the man he thought would carry out the killing.
In court Friday a state prosecutor quoted Mayfield as talking to the police detective about "how to permanently get rid of someone."
That taped conversation concluded with Det. George Williford handing over the name and phone number of a hit man, a MBI officer. In the meeting with the triggerman, Mayfield handed the undercover officer a photo of Webb and two known addresses, Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale told the court. The officer also received $2,500, partial payment until the murder was committed.
Mayfield worked at the Tri-Lakes Women’s Clinic and in the hospital emergency room. He has surrendered his Mississippi medical license but is still licensed in Tennessee and Montana.
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Mayfield gets six years in prison in murder-for-hire scheme
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