LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas firefighter charged with hiring a homeless man to kill his estranged cocktail waitress wife has pleaded not guilty.
But the man he is accused of paying to commit the crime pleaded guilty to beating the 46-year-old woman to death.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the two men gave their conflicting pleas in a Las Vegas district court Thursday.
The court set a Jan, 13, 2014, trial date for the firefighter, George Tiaffay. Prosecutors say he devised the September murder plot and then crashed his pickup into a freeway barrier in a failed suicide attempt as police closed in.
The homeless man, Noel Stevens, said he killed Shauna Tiaffay by hitting her in the head 17 times with a hammer.
She had an 8-year-old daughter.
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