The William Ray Porter Story

Terrible is worse than terrible! God rest his soul!

Miss Daisy wrote:

Terrible is worse than terrible! God rest his soul!

You're right about that! Sometimes you just never know.

It's a story with shocking twists and turns. A gas station owner is killed, and his grieving wife is arrested in connection with the murder.

Gigi Barnett reports Ray Porter was shot almost a week ago at his Hess station on East Joppa Rd. in Towson. As Eyewitness News was first to tell you, Ray's wife Karla Porter is one of several suspects in the murder.

What happened at the Hess station just a week ago now appears to be a part of a sensational murder for hire plot involving a total of six people, including the victim's wife, her sister and brother, and even a nephew.

Police say Karla, who claimed she saw her husband Ray shot in the head by an unknown robber actually paid $9,000 to have him executed.

"She seemed very shocked when I saw her at Shock Trauma on Monday. She was crying; she was shaking," said family friend John Scharf. "It's a shock. I mean it's just shocking. We've discussed; it's almost like a mini-series of some sort."

Scharf learned of the allegations spelled out in court charging documents.

According to those court documents, Karla waived her Miranda Rights and confessed to the murder for hire plot involving five other people.

Police say Karla's sister Susan Datta provided the murder weapon. Her brother Calvin Mower drove the hitmen to the crime scene. The triggerman has been identified as William Bishop along with Matt Brown who was a hired hitman.

Karla's nephew Seamus Coyle confessed to introducing his aunt to the hitmen.

Police say phone records prove Karla used her own cell phone to fake a call from the security alarm company saying there was a problem at the gas station as a way to lure Ray to the station so the hitmen could find him.

Police say Karla told them why. She says they were having marital troubles, there was some abuse and Ray wanted to move to Florida.

"Everybody knows that he wanted to move to Florida. But with Karla having one sister who's paralyzed from the waist down, the other sister who's got cancer, she wanted to stay here and take care of her sisters," said Scharf.

But police say it's not the first time she tried to hire a hitman to kill Ray. On the day of the murder, an anonymous witness came forward to police and said Karla asked him to kill her husband, but he said no and on Saturday, just hours before her husband's funeral, Karla paid the witness for his silence asking him to leave Baltimore.

She was arrested at her home a short time later.

At the gas station, news of the plot seems all too strange to loyal customers leaving condolence messages.

"He's gone too soon, and now that you look at it, that she's being accused of it, it kind of makes you wonder what's the world coming to," said Neal Herbert, loyal customer.

All six suspects are behind bars charged with first degree murder. They are being held without bail