By CAL BEVERLY
Staff Writer

A Coweta County riding instructor Monday paid $500 down and promised $20,000 more after an insurance settlement to a hit man if he would kill her husband of three months, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The problem for Courtney Kimbrough, 37, 79 Kelly Farm Rd., Newnan, was that the “hit man” was an undercover G.B.I. agent, said J.T. Ricketson, special agent in charge of the G.B.I.'s Greenville office.

Officers took her into custody her after the exchange of money, Ricketson said. “She was wearing her riding outfit when arrested.”

Kimbrough, also known as Courtney Jacob, faces a charge of criminal attempt to commit murder after being arrested in a sting operation at an undisclosed Peachtree City restaurant, Ricketson said. A preliminary hearing was scheduled in Fayetteville for Kimbrough Tuesday, but results were unavailable at deadline.

Her husband, Robert Kimbrough, 45, “was completely caught off guard by this,” Ricketson said. “He's in some disbelief, which is natural, I guess.”

“Jacob became the subject of an investigation earlier this month when Peachtree City police learned that she reportedly had contacted several people in the hope of finding someone to kill her husband,” a G.B.I. report said.

Police asked for help from the G.B.I. and the Fayette County District Attorney's office, the report said.

She was arrested after “providing an undercover G.B.I. agent with money to follow through with the murder-for-hire and with items to identify her husband,” the report said. One of those items was a photograph of her husband taken at their wedding in August, Ricketson said.

The undercover agent met with Jacob several times prior to Monday's arrest, the report said.

Kimbrough, who works for BellSouth in Atlanta, had children from a previous marriage who visited on some weekends, but none was living with the couple, officials said.

Ricketson wouldn't speculate on a possible motive, but added that “money was mentioned during the undercover meetings.” He said Jacob told the undercover agent that the bulk of the hit money would come from an insurance settlement “after the job was done.”

Jacob was being held in the Fayette County jail.