Pair Deny Plot To Murder Husband

A man and a woman from Arizona have pleaded innocent to charges they killed the woman’s ex-husband in a murder-for-hire scheme.

Marty J. Malone, 43, of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Jonathan C. Curtis, 45, of Phoenix, pleaded innocent Friday to aggravated first-degree murder in the death of Steven Ver Woert. They entered the pleas in Snohomish County Superior Court via closed-circuit television from the county jail, where they were held without bail.

Ver Woert, 44, was found dead in his Bothell trailer home on Feb. 5. He had been stabbed several times and police said he apparently was killed the night before.

Prosecutors allege Malone paid Curtis $25,000 to kill Ver Woert so she could collect $150,000 in life insurance. After the killing, the pair drove to Ellensburg, where they discarded Curtis’ bloody clothing in a trash bin, prosecutors allege.

Later, Malone offered to pay a Bothell detective investigating the case to kill Curtis, charging papers say.

Malone and Curtis were extradited from Arizona and were booked into jail here Wednesday.

An April 11 trial date was set for both defendants.