Michigan v. Kemia Hassel. New Year’s Eve and a seemingly random murder, in the small town of Benton Harbor , on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Police body cam video captured the heartbroken cries of young Army Sergeant Kemia Hessel as she cradled her handsome, dying young husband in her arms, as he was loaded into an ambulance. But despite the happy outward appearance of the attractive young military couple, investigators soon accused Kemia of directing a murder-for-hire plot with the help of a lover she met while deployed in Korea. Her boyfriend quickly confessed and in a dramatic, videotaped jail house phone call, laid out the murder plot to the victim’s father. Kemia at first denied involvement and despite admissions in a lie detector exam, strongly defended her innocence, claiming her comments to police came from exhaustion and grief. She pointed the finger of blame at her jealous boyfriend who she said acted alone.