Glamorous ‘murder-for-hire’ equestrian Tatyana Remley, 43, is sentenced to almost four years in prison in shock plea deal after hiring hitman to kill estranged husband for $2 million
Future heiress Tatyana Remley has been sentenced to three years and eight months in California after admitting she tried to put a $2 million contract on her husband's life.
The failed impresario was indicted in August after she was arrested during a sting operation by undercover San Diego officers she believed were hitmen.
She took three firearms and an undisclosed cash bond for the murder of husband Mark Remley, whom she left “like a scared puppy.”
But she denied a plea to commit murder until she struck a deal with the San Diego district attorney's office Thursday and was sentenced in Vista Superior Court.
“Tatyana took care of everything, no matter what she said, he just followed her,” the couple's former business partner Erik Martonovich told Dailymail.com
Tatyana Remley brought a cash deposit for the hit and three guns to a meeting at Starbucks, prosecutors said
Tatyana holds a leash around husband Mark Remley's neck and leads him around a party
Las Vegas-based equestrian showman Erik Martonovich (left) told DailyMail.com: 'Tatyana took care of everything. Whatever she said went. And he just followed her around. Mark was like a sniveling, scared puppy.” Martonovich is depicted with Tatyana and Mark
“Mark was like a sniveling, scared puppy, and I never saw Mark say no to her.”
The couple married in 2011 and had already filed divorce papers against each other before finding fame the following year with an equestrian circus show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, based on the famous Cirque de Solei.
But the 'Valitar' show was a spectacular flop, collapsing into bankruptcy after just five of its planned 45 performances.
Tatyana, who claimed to be Russian and have a background in dressage, courted publicity and insisted on appearing in the show despite her mediocre riding skills.
“She didn't do any of the stunts,” hospitality manager Roza Tabasa told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“But eventually, when the whole cast is lined up and everyone is clapping, this blonde lady comes to the center, the other cast members say goodbye to her and there is a silence.
'People think, 'Who is she? Oh, it's the lady on the poster.'
In fact, Tatyana was a mother of two from Bend, Oregon, who had dropped out of high school in the fourth grade and had a string of failed hookups with wealthy men behind her.
And she was already fighting for custody of the son she shared with multimillionaire biotech magnate Kenneth Woolcott, whom she divorced in 2004 after just 11 months of marriage.
Tatyana was arrested after admitting her plans to have him killed and his body taken to an undercover detective, the San Diego Sheriff's Department said.
Remley was seen posing with her estranged husband's luxury sports car
Remley, from Del Mar, California, allegedly tried to commit a murder-for-hire plot on her estranged millionaire husband Mark
The couple made headlines a decade ago when they opened a “horse person acrobatics show” at the Del Mar Fairgrounds known as Valitar in 2012, which quickly went bankrupt.
Remley in a promotional ad for their failed horse show in the San Diego area
“She was very, look how beautiful I am,” Martonovich said.
“The personality she wanted to portray to the world was that she is a beautiful Russian supermodel. And maybe supermodel with a touch of Barbie.
'I don't think she's really Russian, nor is she a supermodel. But I'm pretty sure she's good at being a gold digger.”
Tatyana and her husband, who inherited $26 million from his parents, went through a series of failed business ventures and a series of divorces and reconciliations until their final split in May last year.
On July 5, she was arrested with three firearms in their home as it burned to the ground, and six days later she filed for divorce again and requested $15,000 in monthly spousal support.
In the petition, she claimed that her husband had been laughing as one of his friends raped her at gunpoint.
“I am in danger when I am near the defendant,” she wrote.
“He has a history of prior arrests including a $50,000 bond, extreme verbal abuse, drug abuse and has very dangerous friends.
'In the past he was instructed to see a spiritual counselor because of his mental instability.
“On May 21, 2023, defendant's friends entered our home and broke down my bedroom door while I was locked inside. It was late at night and I was terrified.
It would take a long time: Tatjana asked for $15,000 a month in spousal support in her divorce filings to continue her lavish lifestyle, which she admitted was 'comfortable'
The couple's $5.3 million home, located in posh Del Mar, California. Mark — who reportedly inherited $26 million from his parents — moved into the current Del Mar property with Tatyana before the fire.
Judge David Danielson handed down the sentence in Vista Superior Court
'They entered my bedroom and held me at gunpoint. I was raped by one of his friends, who also told me he planned to kill me.”
Remley has denied abusing his wife, but by then she planned to kill him and provided “detailed information about how she wanted her husband to be killed and how his body would be disposed of,” according to detectives who met with her at the Starbucks in Solana Beach, where she was. arrested on August 2.
She has been held at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee since her arrest and was scheduled to face a preliminary hearing within days.
She also admitted possessing a loaded and concealed firearm not registered to her name, but a second gun-related charge was dropped.