Houston couple hired hitman to kill their exes but got undercover cop instead, prosecutor says Victims helped stage phony crime scene with police

A Houston veterinarian and her boyfriend are charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill their exes. Valerie McDaniel, who runs the Montrose Veterinary Clinic, and Leon Jacob, are being held in the Harris County Jail without bail. The couple made their first appearance in court Monday, March 13, 2017. A judge denied bond for the pair. less A Houston veterinarian and her boyfriend are charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill their exes. Valerie McDaniel, who runs the Montrose Veterinary Clinic, and Leon Jacob, are being held in the Harris ... more Photo: Brian Rogers/Houston Chronicle Photo: Brian Rogers/Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Houston couple hired hitman to kill their exes but got undercover cop instead, prosecutor says 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The hitman pushed the photos across the table.

One showed a man lying lifeless. Another showed a woman bound and gagged.

Veterinarian Valerie Busick McDaniel and her boyfriend, Leon Phillip Jacob, blanched at the sight, then handed over $20,000 in cash and two Cartier watches in payment for killing their exes, prosecutors said Monday in court.

And that's when police moved in. The hitman was instead an undercover officer, and the crime scenes were staged.

Now the prominent Montrose veterinarian and her boyfriend - a washed-out medical resident - are charged with solicitation of capital murder in an intricate murder-for-hire plot that had been hammered out a few days earlier in an Olive Garden restaurant.

"They didn't want to look at the pictures," Harris County Assistant District Attorney Nathan Moss said Monday in court. "They said, 'Oh, we don't want to see them but here's the money we owe you.'"

McDaniel, 48, and Jacob, 39, appeared in court Monday wearing handcuffs and orange jail uniforms, facing up to life in prison if convicted. Both were arrested Friday as they tried to pay the triggerman.

State District Judge Jim Wallace set bail at $50,000 for McDaniel, but denied bail for Jacob.

No possible motives were outlined in court. But McDaniel, who owns the upscale Montrose Veterinary Clinic and lives in a River Oaks condominium, was hit last year with $1.3 million divorce settlement; Jacob was already facing charges he stalked his ex-girlfriend earlier this year after she refused to reconcile, according to court documents.

McDaniel's attorney, Matt Alford, suggested the veterinarian was drawn into the plot by Jacob.

"She clearly came into this situation after the fact," Alford said. "She was on no one's radar until the very end of the investigation, is my understanding."

It was a theory soundly rejected by prosecutors.

"She is not a victim," Moss said. "She was brought to the meeting and discussed with the officer exactly how she wanted her ex-husband killed. In no way is she a victim."

DAD'S DEATH: Cause of death released for man who disappeared while fishing

Moss said it's not unusual for officers to stage a crime scene, with victims wearing bloody make-up and posing for photos as though they'd been killed.

"When we know there are going to be high-priced lawyers, we want to make sure the case is solid," he said after Monday's hearing. "The Houston Police Department Major Offenders unit is very good at this."

Lawyers for Jacob did not comment after Monday's hearing.

New details emerging

The death of McDaniel's ex-husband was supposed to look like a carjacking gone wrong, Moss said.

To bolster the fake hitman's story, police officers were sent to McDaniel's front door to notify her as next-of-kin.

Jacob had arranged for his ex-girlfriend to be kidnapped so he could kill her himself, but instead deferred to the hitman, prosecutors said Monday.

Details are still emerging about the case, Moss said, but he told the judge that the couple paid a "facilitator" $10,000 to arrange the killings. Instead of finding a hitman, however, the facilitator went to the police weeks ago , he said.

The ex-husband and former girlfriend could not be reached for comment.

At the Montrose Veterinary Clinic Monday, employees declined to comment as customers brought their animals in and out of the facility.

The clinic offers a range of services, from traditional care to pet dental care and acupuncture. McDaniel purchased the business in 2000, just three years after graduating from Texas A&M University's veterinary school, according to state records.

McDaniel divorced last year, two years after the case was filed. She was ordered to make the cash payment to her ex to equalize the estate, and surrendered ownership of a $720,000 waterfront home on Tiki Island in Galveston, records showed.

In exchange, she kept the veterinary business and the building that houses it at 1701 Montrose Boulevard, among other properties, according to court documents.

The divorce also listed sizeable debts on the business, and state records show the company faced tax forfeiture several years ago.

The couple shared custody of their daughter, but that changed Friday when the ex-husband was granted a protective order against McDaniel.

The judge ordered her not to have any contact with her ex or the child if she is able to make bail.

Neighbors who lived near McDaniel for several years in Montrose said she and her ex-husband seemed like successful couple, buying a boat and the second home in Galveston.

The neighbors, who did not want to be identified by name, said they took their own pets to her clinic until it got too pricey.

PLAYER KILLED: Ex-Baylor coach says slain basketball player was 'the worst'

McDaniel is the daughter of Carole Ann Busick, a Houston psychologist who pleaded guilty to tampering with mental health evaluations for peace officer candidates, a problem that left more than a dozen police agencies in the Houston area scrambling to retest officers to ensure they were fit for duty.

Busick, and her husband, licensed professional counselor Don Busick, who is identified in court records as McDaniel's father, were sentenced to 10 years probation. The Busicks relinquished their professional licenses and retired from their practice, according to the plea deal reached with Harris County prosecutors.

History of domestic violence

Jacob has had a history of problems in recent years, with two prior arrests for stalking, assault and other domestic violence.

He also had struggled in recent years to complete his four-year medical residency to become a licensed physician, and held himself out as a physician working out of his home in West University.

He claimed to have received medical degree in 2005 from St. George's University in Grenada, West Indies, and reported to the state that he worked in residency programs at St. Luke's and at the University of Texas Medical School, where officials confirmed a person by that name did a year of general surgery residents in 2008-2009 and was enrolled in a renal transplant surgery fellowship from November 2009 to June 2010.

In 2010, however, he was removed as a four-year resident from the Baylor College of Medicine program for undisclosed reasons, according to the Texas Medical Board.

Court records show that later that year he surfaced in a surgical residency program in Ohio at a Youngstown hospital. Supervisors found he lacked interpersonal skills, professionalism, punctuality, ethics and honesty, and nurses complained about him. A supervisor found he left a patient unattended after a surgery, prompting a re-intubation.

In 2011, within a year of his arrival, the Youngstown Ohio Hospital Company dismissed him from the residency program, finding him "an immediate threat to patient safety."

The next year Jacob filed a lawsuit against the company that eventually was dismissed. Among the employees who testified in the hospital's defense was the residency program's coordinator, whose home Jacob was charged in 2012. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of trespassing.

Harris County court records show that Jacob has an ex-wife and children in Illinois and a history of domestic violence. He was arrested in 2014 for violating a protective order, aggravated stalking and cyberstalking, though the records do not show where the charges were filed.

More recently, he was charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend in January, then stalking her through mid-February. He repeatedly followed her, went to her place of employment and sent harassing e-mails and texts, court records show.

When police found him hiding in the shrubs near her work on Feb. 6, he was arrested and searched. Police found prescription amphetamine and charged him with possession of a controlled substance; those charges were dismissed a day later when he showed a valid prescription.

During a bankruptcy filing in Houston last year, he reported that he was operating a business, Leon Jacob MD PLLC - a professional limited liability corporation - at an address that he also listed as his home.

brian.rogers@chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogers