A Missouri woman who described herself as a "pistol-packing cheer mom" is accused of hiring a hitman to kill her former mother-in-law. Authorities said that Leigh Ann Bauman, 44, was worried that her ex-husband and former mother-in-law would take her to court to gain full custody of her children.

Bauman allegedly reached out to a friend and asked if they could help her find a hitman and was willing to pay $1,500. She wanted the death to look like an accident. Her friend reached out to the police and provided them a secret recording of their conversation about the murder for hire plot.

Bauman was taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. She has denied the charges, claiming that her friend was trying to set her up to gain leverage in their own upcoming criminal case. A judge initially denied Bauman's release, but she was eventually freed after posting a $400,000 bond.

Her ex-husband applied for an order of protection, claiming the Bauman posed a danger to him, his mother, and her own children.

A few days before Bauman was arrested, she sent a text message to one of her daughters saying that her "grandmother would die."

When Bauman's ex-husband saw the message, he confronted her, and she told him that "she just meant [the grandmother] was old and was going to die."

He also claimed she has a history of drunk driving and described one time when she pulled a gun on a pizza deliveryman. He told the court that she tried to kidnap her children when they were young and said she made "numerous threats to destroy me, personally and professionally."

"Leigh Ann has always acted like she was above the law," he said in the petition, according to The Daily Beast. "My daughters, my family, and I have endured so much emotional and psychological damage from Leigh Ann Bauman's actions over the past 15 years. Now, her most recent actions of attempting to hire a hitman to kill my mother have proven that she will stop at nothing if she feels/thinks/imagines someone is not doing what she wants."

Photo: Camden County Jail

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