Indictment against stripper-turned soccer mom dismissed

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A judge in Anchorage has dismissed a murder indictment against Mechele Linehan, who was accused of conspiring to kill her former fiance.

Linehan, a former Anchorage stripper who eventually settled in Olympia was convicted in 2007 of killing Kent Leppink, who was shot on an isolated trail 11 years earlier.

Prosecutors had argued she was inspired by watching the 1994 movie "The Last Seduction," in which a femme fatale coaxes her lover into killing her husband for money. Linehan and John Carlin III had plotted to kill Leppink in hopes of receiving $1 million in life insurance money, they said, and a jury agreed.

But the Alaska Appeals Court tossed out the conviction in 2010.

State prosecutors decided to retry Linehan in Leppink's death. But a judge on Thursday tossed out the grand jury indictment, citing an evidence issue.

The judge took issue with a letter Leppink had sent to his mother, who testified in court. Betsy Lippink said she had received a letter from her son that instructed her and her husband not to open an enclosed envelope unless they heard that he was dead, court documents said.

The woman said she opened that envelope later after she learned her son had been murdered. Leppink's letter to his parents asserted that Linehan would probably be responsible if he died suspiciously. He urged them to be sure "to take Mechele DOWN. Make sure she is prosecuted."

Proceedings during the trial revealed the letter should not have been admitted as evidence as it is not relevant to a disputed issue in the case, the judge ruled, adding the "letter from the grave" influenced the grand jury.

Linehan had been released on bail.
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