Lindsay Shiver, a former beauty queen, is making a late bid to have charges dismissed in a murder-for-hire case, with her legal team arguing that Bahamian authorities lacked the jurisdiction to arrest and prosecute her. The motion contends that Shiver was in the United States when the alleged communications to plot the murder of her ex-husband, Robert Shiver, took place.
Shiver, 39, faces charges of conspiring to murder Robert Shiver, a former football player. The case against her reportedly hinges on WhatsApp messages allegedly sent in July 2023 from Shiver to her barman lover, Adrien Bethel, and his friend Faron Newbold Jr. Charging documents claim Shiver sent Newbold a photograph of Robert Shiver at a beach bar near their Abaco Islands vacation home with instructions to kill him.
Her recently retained lawyer, Terrel Butler, asserts that because the alleged communications were sent before Shiver arrived in the Bahamas, Bahamian officers had no jurisdiction to detain or question her, and therefore, the trial should be dismissed. This legal maneuver is a "Hail Mary bid" to avoid a trial that has already been postponed multiple times.
The trial, now rescheduled to begin on November 2, has been pending for nearly three years and four months. Shiver faces a potential sentence of 60 years if convicted.
Case Details and Background
The Shivers, who previously maintained a lavish lifestyle, splitting time between a Georgia mansion and an exclusive Abaco resort, were in the midst of a contentious divorce. Robert Shiver filed for divorce in April 2023, citing infidelity, while Lindsay Shiver countered with accusations of "physical and mentally cruel treatment."
Three months after the divorce filing, Lindsay Shiver was arrested in the Bahamas, charged with conspiring with Bethel to have his friend Newbold murder her husband. Robert Shiver had reportedly taken the couple's private jet to the Bahamas without his estranged wife following an argument about her alleged affair with Bethel.
Shiver reportedly admitted to police that she sent messages to Bethel expressing a desire to kill Robert and that Bethel understood and also wanted to kill him. However, in the same interview, she maintained that any talk of murder was "said out of anger and frustration," according to prosecution documents. Robert Shiver was allegedly unaware of any threats until police questioned Bethel about an unrelated break-in and discovered the messages.
Following her arrest, Shiver spent 19 days in Nassau's Fox Hill Prison before being released on bail with a GPS ankle monitor. She was permitted to return to Alabama to live with her parents. Later, she was held for an additional four months in late 2024 for allegedly breaching pre-trial publicity restrictions by appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Robert Shiver, who has not publicly commented on the case, remains in Thomasville, Georgia, where the divorce and custody proceedings are ongoing. His recent girlfriend, reality TV personality Savannah Chrisley, has spoken critically of Shiver's alleged actions.
Senior Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson is expected to rule on the motion to dismiss the charges by the end of the month.
