Execution set for man convicted of contract killing

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled a May 12 execution for a former St. Louis jailer convicted of hiring someone to kill his ex-wife in 2000.

The state's high court set the execution date Thursday for Kimber Edwards, who turns 51 on Sunday.

Thirty-five year-old Kimberly Cantrell was shot and killed in August 2000 in her apartment in University City near St. Louis. The man Edwards was convicted of hiring, Orthell Wilson, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors said Edwards wanted Cantrell dead to relieve him of paying overdue child support.

Edwards insisted at trial he had been framed and had no motive to harm his ex-wife because the former couple had worked out a deal to make up the child support.