An exotic nightclub dancer pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to solicitation of murder in a plot to kill a former boyfriend so she could collect on his $300,000 life insurance policy.
A doorman at the club where she danced - the Wagon Wheel in the 800 block of North Point Road in East Baltimore - and his son both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the case.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend at her sentencing early next year a seven-year prison term for the dancer, Rosemary Acfalle Cing, 32, of the 2300 block of Holyoke Road in Rosedale.
Separate plea agreements with the bouncer, Don Tate Sr., and his son, Don Tate Jr., both of Fort Washington in Prince George's County, call for prosecutors to recommend jail terms of no more than five and four years respectively.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Circuit Judge Allen L. Schwait set sentencing for Cing, whose stage name was Ruby, on Jan. 19 and sentencing for Tate Sr., 46, and Tate Jr., 19, on Jan. 23. The three may argue at those hearings for reductions in the recommended sentences.
The target of the plot, Ruxton businessman Basil Brown Bradford Jr., was not harmed.
Assistant State's Attorney Mark P. Cohen said in court that Cing and Bradford had had a four-year relationship that ended late last year and that Bradford had made her the beneficiary of his life insurance policy in 1996.
Between the time authorities informed Bradford of the plot in March and located and arrested Cing in May, Cohen said, the two spoke on the phone and met at least once. Cing apologized and told Bradford that she didn't intend to carry out the plot, Cohen said.
"I would have to characterize Mr. Bradford as not being anxious for this case to come forward," Cohen said.
Efforts to reach Bradford yesterday were unsuccessful.
A statement of facts Cohen read in court indicates Cing approached the elder Tate in February about the plot and gave him $750 in cash and photographs of Bradford.
Tate Sr., who was having financial trouble, told police he had hoped to get as much as $50,000 for murdering Bradford, Cohen said.
The elder Tate enlisted his son to help and was instructed by Cing to carry out the killing while the dancer was on a two-week trip to Las Vegas in March, Cohen said.
The plot came to light when a man the younger Tate had confided in was picked up by Prince George's County police on an unrelated criminal charge and told them of the plan, Cohen said.
Both Tates confessed when confronted by police, Cohen said.
