Despite fervent cries of “I still love you,” a Newnan woman is behind bars in Fayette County and charged with criminal attempt to kill her husband.

Courtney Jacob, also known as Courtney Kimbrough, 37, of Kelly Farm Road in Newnan, was denied bond Tuesday afternoon in Fayette County Magistrate Court in connection with the crime.

As Judge Grady Huddleston outlined the court proceedings, Jacob sat motionless and looked straight ahead while her husband, Robert Kimbrough, 45, wept silently in the audience.

The tiny magistrate courtroom was packed with media and family as Huddleston told Jacob that her next hearing would be a preliminary hearing Dec. 13 at 10 a.m.

In Wednesday's hearing, Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bill McBroom asked the judge to deny bond because if Jacob had been successful in killing her husband, the case would have ultimately been a death penalty case.

“This was very cold and calculating,” McBroom said.

After the hearing, McBroom outlined the chilling facts in the case.

Although the couple was just married for three months, McBroom said Jacob, a self-employed riding instructor, started seeking people to kill her husband at the beginning of November. After hearing of Jacob's plans, an unnamed Peachtree City resident went to the Peachtree City Police with the tale.

The Peachtree City Police called in the services of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who sent in an undercover hit man to talk to Jacob about her plan.

She was very specific in how and when she wanted her husband killed, said McBroom.

“She originally wanted it done after Thanksgiving. But when his parents cancelled the Thanksgiving plans, she told the GBI agent she wanted it done Wednesday at 4 p.m.,” he said.

McBroom said that she told the undercover agent that her husband could be killed in one of two ways. Since her husband had an old car propped on blocks that he was constantly working on, the killer could hit her husband in the head, roll his body under the car, and drop the vehicle on him, McBroom said.

The second option would be a little messier, Mcbroom said. Jacob mentioned a possible harrow accident that could look like a farming accident, he said.

A harrow is a cultivating implement with spikes or disks used to pulverize the soil.

In return for her husband's death, Jacob and the GBI agent agreed on a $20,000 price tag, said McBroom. To show the agent she was serious, McBroom said, she gave him a ring as a “down payment” Nov. 15 and gave him $500 shortly before she was arrested at a Peachtree City McDonald's on Ga. Highway 54 Monday morning.

The rest of the money, McBroom said, would be delivered after she collected on Kimbrough's insurance policy.

Jacob's attorney, Nelson Tyrone, dismissed the charges and said the allegations did not fit his client's previous behavior. He said she would be undergoing psychiatric evaluation to determine her mental state at the time of her arrest.

McBroom added that the first thing Jacob uttered after she was arrested was, “I guess I need to see a psychiatrist.”

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