GREENSBURG, Pa. - A woman pleaded guilty to reduced charges for acting as a go-between in a failed murder-for-hire scheme.

Elaine A. Kelly, 53, of Greensburg, pleaded guilty Wednesday to solicitation to commit aggravated assault.

In the spring of 2001, Kelly introduced Barbara Ann Auen, 50, of Derry Township, to John Wayne Hewitt, 56, also of Derry Township, so Auen could arrange the murder of her husband of seven years, state police said.

Auen wanted to hire someone to kill her estranged husband, Barry Auen, before he could remove her name from his $250,000 life insurance policy, prosecutors said.

Although Kelly played a role as an intermediary in the plot, "there was some evidence that she didn't really believe this was going to happen and that the woman wanted her husband killed," Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Wayne Gongaware said.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped charges of solicitation and conspiracy to commit homicide. Kelly was sentenced to time served - about eight months - plus two years of probation.

Barbara Auen told co-workers she needed $7,000 to hire a hit man, police said.

Soon after one of the co-workers told authorities about the murder plot, an undercover state police trooper posed as a friend of the co-worker and offered Barbara Auen $7,000. She was arrested after accepting the money, police said.

Police then set up a meeting with Hewitt and he was arrested after he took the $7,000 from Barbara Auen.

On Monday, Barbara Auen pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy. She will be sentenced in February.

Hewitt, who pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and solicitation to commit aggravated assault, told investigators that he never intended to arrange the murder, but instead planned to swindle money from the woman, Gongaware said.

Hewitt was sentenced to 27 to 54 months in prison.