Husband Jake Merfeld begs for lenient sentence for 'godly' wife Julia who wanted him killed From left, the parents of Julia Merfeld, Christina and Joe Antonaccio, and Merfeld's husband, Jacob Merfeld at Muskegon County's court. AP / The Muskegon Chronicle, Ken Stevens Source: AP Julia Merfeld leaves the courtroom after her sentencing. THE husband of a woman captured trying to hire a hitman to kill him has made an impassioned plea to the judge for a reduced sentence, saying "she is a godly woman." "I whole-hard-heartedly forgive my wife for all she has done in this act of hatred," Jake Merfeld, 27, of Michigan said. I know that my wife is a wonderful person. She is a godly woman. Julia Merfeld, 21, was caught negotiating the $50,000 hit contract with an undercover cop in April. She said she wanted her husband dead because it would be easier than divorcing him. "It's not that we weren't getting along, but, it was easier than, as terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him," she was recorded as saying. You know, I didn't have to worry about the judgment in my family, I didn't have to worry about breaking his heart. Muskegon County Circuit Court Judge William Marietti had sentenced the mother-of-two to five years and eight months in prison after she pleaded guilty to the charge of solicitation of murder. Fortunately, the two people who matter the most have already forgiven me, my husband and God. Honestly, they're the only two people who matter," Mrs Merfeld said. Mersfeld had given the undercover cop a key to her house, telling him to make the killing look like a robbery gone wrong. Then she said she didn't want the murder to happen in her house. "So you don't want it done in the house then?" the undercover officer asked. "'Cause it would be messy" Merfeld replied ""Unless you can do it painlessly, you know, breaking his neck." Police told the court they believed Julia Merfeld was after her husband's $400,000 life insurance policy.