Recently released footage showing a Michigan woman casually and callously attempting to hire a hitman to kill her husband reveals her alleged motive: "It was easier than divorcing him."

Julia Merfeld, 21, of Muskegon met with the hitman — in reality, an undercover detective — twice in early April of this year in an effort to solicit his services.

She was arrested following the second meeting.

Merfeld previously approached a co-worker, Carlos Ramos, with the same request, but was turned down. Ramos, who initially thought Merfeld was kidding, eventually tipped off the cops.

In the video, secretly recorded by the Michigan State police detective, Merfeld says she and her 27-year-old husband were getting along well enough, but she wanted to make a "clean getaway," and putting a hit on him "was easier than divorcing him."

"You know, I didn’t have to worry about the judgment of my family, I didn’t have to worry about breaking his heart, all that stuff like this," she told the fake hitman.

According to authorities, Merfeld was also after her spouse's $400,000 life insurance.

Once the deed was done, Merfeld promised to pay the hitman $50,000 in weekly installments of $9,000 to avoid suspicion.

At a court appearance on June 27th, Merfeld pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder; her sentencing date has been set for July 30th.

Shockingly, Merfeld's husband asked Chief Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti not to give his wife any prison time, but the judge dismissed his request, saying instead he was willing to lower the minimum sentence to six years from the state's request of seven.

That does not necessarily mean Merfeld is about to get off light. Marietti could still sentence her to the maximum: Life in prison.

[screengrab via Mlive]