Fairfax says Steele rejected divorce idea
BOISE - When Larry Fairfax spoke with Edgar Steele about a plot to kill Steele's wife, he asked the North Idaho lawyer why he didn't divorce his wife instead.
"He said the last time he was going to get a divorce form her she was going to take too much, and we didn't want to part with all his possession and money," Fairfax said today in U.S. District Court in Boise.
According to court records, Cyndi Steele filed for divorce in June 2000, alleging her husband “misrepresented his marital status and eligibility” in online dating profiles “with the sole intention of meeting women” in San Mateo, where he maintained a law office. The case was dismissed two months later and the couple remained married.
Now prosecutors allege Edgar Steele wanted his wife killed because he believed she was having an affair and because he was interested in a young woman in Europe.
Fairfax, the alleged hitman-turned-FBI informant, testified this morning that Steele had said "he hired a private investigator to follow his wife around and that she was having an affair with an old high school flame in Portland."
Fairfax also said Steele was planning a 30-day trip to Europe.
Fairfax said he was working at Big Al's in Post Falls when an FBI agent called him on June 15 after the pipe bomb was found under Cyndi Steele's car.
He's been in custody since and is to be sentenced after the trial for two federal firearms charges.