Rock singer sentenced to prison for trying to hire hit man to kill wife

Reporting from San Diego — Tim Lambesis, lead singer for the Christian-themed rock band As I Lay Dying, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to hire a hit man to kill his estranged wife.

Lambesis, 33, a resident of Carlsbad, had pleaded guilty to a charge of solicitation to murder, a felony. He was sentenced in Vista Superior Court.

In divorce papers, his wife alleged that he had become emotionally distant, was preoccupied with bodybuilding and touring, and spent money irresponsibly, including on numerous tattoos.

The couple had been married eight years and had adopted three children from Ethiopia.

Prosecutors said Lambesis had sent his wife an email several months before she filed for divorce telling her that he no longer loved her or believed in God. She also discovered several of his extramarital affairs, she said.

A sheriff’s deputy posing as a hit man met with Lambesis and was given $1,000 and the address of his wife’s home and the code to unlock the front door, prosecutors said.

Authorities were alerted to his desire to hire a hit man after Lambesis allegedly told someone at his gym that he wanted his wife killed.

Lambesis was arrested in Oceanside in May 2013. He had remained free on $3 million bail while awaiting trial but was ordered to stay away from his wife and children, surrender his passport and wear a GPS tracking device.

In 2007, his band’s single “Nothing Left” was nominated for a metal performance Grammy. In the fall of 2012, the group released its sixth album, “Awakened.”

As a singer, Lambesis has been described as something “between sinister screaming and high-energy growling.” At the time of his arrest, Lambesis was using crowd-sourcing to raise money for his latest musical effort.

For a contribution of $5,000, Lambesis promised to have the donor’s name tattooed on his buttocks.