Former Kentucky teacher and mother Elena Bardin was accused of sending explicit photos and having sexual contact with a juvenile inmate she taught, while also soliciting him to kill her husband to avoid divorce and custody disputes. Prosecutors presented letters, photos, and testimony from the boy, though Bardin’s defense argued the murder-for-hire talk was only a joke. After a two-day trial, the jury convicted her of sexual abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor, and distributing obscene material, but acquitted her of solicitation to murder; she now faces up to 14 years in prison at sentencing in November.
