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Gregory A. Hess, 47, of Seven Valleys, is on trial in York County Court, facing charges that include criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

(York County Prison)

YORK - It was a marriage that had been on the rocks for quite some time.

And by February of 2014, it was pretty much all over except for the divorce papers when Laurie Hess found an old friend on Facebook. After 25 years, she once again started talking to Chris Ward.

In the meantime, though, she kept on working with her husband, Gregory Hess, where she was an office manager at the business he owned - Keystone Restorations.

According to testimony Wednesday at Gregory Hess's trial in York County Court, Laurie Hess, who now goes by the last name of Keasey, tried to explain what was going on to her children.

"Did you tell them you needed to live your life?" defense attorney Suzanne Smith asked her on the stand, to which Keasey said "yes."

"And that you hadn't been able to when you were younger?"

Keasey didn't recall saying that, but she does remember receiving a text message from Ward saying, "you know I would kiss you so hard."

That message came through on Feb. 28, 2014. And by March, she was living with Ward as she waited for her own rental home -- apart from her husband -- to be finished and ready for her to move into.

She never told her husband she was staying with Ward, which is why, she testified, she was shocked to find a printed photo of him in the printer she and her husband shared at work.

That photo, York County prosecutors are arguing, ended up in the hands of Calvin Jones Jr. - a man Hess hired to kill Ward.

Jones didn't kill him, though. What he did, according to testimony Wednesday, was contact the police, which led the parties to trial this week.

Gregory Hess, 47, of Seven Valleys, is on trial in York County Court, facing charges of criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder and criminal use of a communication facility.

Trooper Shawn Wolfe of the Pennsylvania State Police filed those charges, and he testified Wednesday got involved with the case as soon as Jones contacted him.

"He indicated to me he'd been solicited by another individual to have someone murdered. To have someone killed," Wolfe said.

He testified Jones gave the trooper two pieces of paper - one showing Ward's house, and the other an image of Ward.

The investigation moved quickly from there. Wolfe testified it unfolded like this:

As soon as Jones showed him the photos, Wolfe gathered two other police officers, and they went to Ward's Shiloh-area home.

Ward didn't believe them at first, but he eventually brought them upstairs where Keasey was sitting on the bed. It was in the room that Ward showed Wolfe something that disturbed the troopers, and gave the situation a greater sense of urgency. Out of a nightstand drawer, Ward pulled the photo of himself that Keasey had found in the printer at work.

It was the same as the photo Hess had given to Jones.

Fearful for their lives, Wolfe brought Ward and Keasey to a York County Drug Task Force location in York where they decided to do something Wolfe had never done in his career. Hess wanted proof that Ward was dead before paying Jones, so they were going to give him that proof.

Ward agreed to let the troopers bind his hands with duct tape. He got down on the ground in a gravel parking lot. Troopers squirted ketchup on his head and pooled it on the ground around him to mimic blood. They then took a photo and put the picture in Jones' phone.

Jones made a call to Hess, using "the dead guy's phone," Wolfe said, which was another one of Hess's demands. They were going to meet at Denny's that night for payment, but Hess never showed up. Another recorded phone call was made, making arrangements to do so the following morning on April 18, 2014.

Police had surveillance all around as Jones drove Ward's truck - another provision of the deal - to Denny's, where he met with Hess. Once Hess handed Jones his payment, police jumped in and arrested him.

Testimony ended there for the day. Trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.