Lexy Gross

@lexygross

Former New Albany cafe owner Laura Ann Buckingham was charged with criminal intent to commit first-degree murder, according to a report from the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Buckingham is currently booked in the Roane County Jail with a $150,000 bond.

According to the Sentinel's report, Buckingham, 29, paid an undercover Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent to kill her former partner, Bradley Sutherland of New Albany. Buckingham was living with her boyfriend, Joseph Chamblin, in Kingston, Tenn.

The incident report, obtained by the Sentinel, said Buckingham repeatedly asked Chamblin if he could make her former partner "go away."

Chamblin is known for being one of the U.S. Marine staff sergeants that pleaded guilty to urinating on the corpses of three Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in July 2011. He wrote a book, "Into Infamy," defending his actions.

According to the incident report, Buckingham "stated to him that since he was in the military maybe he had some friends that might could do this for him."

Chamblin grew concerned about her persistence and eventually began recording their conversations, later providing them to investigators, according to the Sentinel.

Authorities told the Sentinel the murder-for-hire scheme apparently arose from a custody dispute between Buckingham and Sutherland. Sutherland had taken Buckingham to court for custody and visitation rights.

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Buckingham was traveling to New Albany once a week so Sutherland could visit with their son, according to the Sentinel.

Buckingham owned and operated New Albany's Bread and Breakfast until late 2015. According to a previous Courier-Journal report, Buckingham also spent eight years in the Marine Corps, "taking part in counter-piracy operations in Somalia and joining a humanitarian mission in Bangladesh."

Reporter Lexy Gross can be reached at 502-582-4087 or via email at lgross@courier-journal.com. Like the Courier-Journal's Indiana Facebook page for more regional news at www.facebook.com/cjindiana/.

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