ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STAUNTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
AN INFORMANT says he went to police after soap opera actress Catherine Ann Christianson suggested he kill her husband.
Catherine Ann Christianson was determined to kill her husband, according to the man who says the former soap opera actress hired him to commit the crime.
``I could not talk her out of it, because every time I said `Can I talk you out of it?' she'd assume I was talking about making another plan, and I wanted to drop the whole thing,'' he said.
Christianson is being held in the Augusta County Jail, charged with attempting to hire out the murder of her husband, Charles R. ``Rick'' Chittum.
The man, who spoke Friday to The Daily News Leader of Staunton, is key to the case. A police informant in other cases, he contacted police when Christianson offered $20,000 for the murder, he said. He would not release his name for publication because he feared reprisals from those involved in drug trials where he had testified as an informant.
He said Christianson hired him in June to do gardening work, then approached him in the last part of June, saying she had a ``business proposition.''
At first, she proposed a plan in which one of them would be sure a tree limb was blocking one of the lanes Chittum used to leave the couple's house in Churchville, said the man. The man would shoot Chittum, a shooting that would be blamed on poachers who frequented the area.
``That's when I suspected she was really going to go through with it,'' he said. ``That's when she offered the $20,000. She said she'd sell stock and offer increments of $1,000 to $1,200 a month.''
The man said he owes $50,000 in child support and that the Internal Revenue Service garnishees 65 percent of his wages. ``She knew I was in a financial bind that is probably going to last all my life.''
The man said he felt trapped. ``I couldn't say yes. I couldn't accept, and I couldn't decline. If I did decline, I would read Chittum's obituary from some accident, so I knew the only way I could stop her was to go to someone else.''
The man went to police, who videotaped the final exchange between him and Christianson.
Christianson's attorney, Humes Franklin Jr., declined to comment on the man's story.
Christianson played a recurring role in the ABC daytime drama ``One Life to Live'' in 1991. Her last job was a 10-week run of ``Grace and Glorie'' at Roanoke's Mill Mountain Theatre in April.
Chittum filed for divorce the day after his wife's July 24 arrest and obtained sole custody of their 2-year-old son.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB