Murder accused husband had urn ready

A husband accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife had already prepared an urn inscribed with the words: “Bitches Ashes!“, police said today.

Albert Ermmarino, from Long Island, New York, allegedly offered cash and two used cars to an undercover detective posing as an assassin to carry out the murder.

The 44-year-old car parts salesman is also accused of attempting to have his own brother and nephew killed.

District Attorney Thomas Spota said he suspected his brother was having an affair with his estranged wife, Joann, and he disliked his nephew because he had once beaten him up.

Detectives searching Ermmarino’s office following his arrest said they found a flower-patterned ceramic urn on which he had scrawled “Bitches Ashes! (Joann)“.

Ermmarino and Joanne, 42, were high school sweethearts who had been married for 19 years, but were going through a bitter divorce. They have two daughters.

Police allege that over several months of negotiations Ermmarino gave an undercover detective cash and titles to two restored vehicles, a 1953 Ford pick-up and a 1973 Mercedes, as a partial payment.

They allege he did not care how the killings were carried out.

Ermmarino was detained without bail on charges of conspiring to murder following his arraignment in Suffolk County Criminal Court.

His lawyer, Rudolph Cartier, said: “I was very surprised he would have been the subject of this kind of allegation.”