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WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - A Polk County woman who was in jail for allegedly operating an illegal weight loss clinic, called Drop it Like It's Hot, faces new charges for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband.
Jesusadelaida “Jesse” Lopez, 40, was arrested twice before for operating the a businesses without a proper license. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday, while Lopez was in jail she unknowingly called an undercover cop to try and arrange the hit.
“She’s thinking, 'Hmm, if my husband were out of the way, that would take care of my witness and my child custody issues,'” opined Judd, who added that Lopez and her husband are going through a divorce.
Her efforts were thwarted by deputies after she used a jailhouse phone to call the number of an undercover detective. According to jail phone records, she talked to him under the guise of having a tree to be removed from her house for $2,000.
“We wanted to make sure we had the right tree. So we went to the house, and there’s no trees in the yard. And we said, 'Can you send us a picture of the tree?'” said Judd.
The sheriff said Lopez sent a photo of her husband as the "tree" that needed to be removed. She allegedly wrote a letter blaming him for her stay in jail, deputies said.
“And in it she says, 'Can it be like an accident? Like a robbery gone wrong?'” said Judd.
Lopez was originally arrested in June 2018 for practicing without a medical license at Dr. Drop It Like It’s Hot, where she portrayed herself as a nurse at a weight loss clinic. Then Lopez got arrested again in February for the same crime, this time opening a gym in Auburndale.
Now she faces a charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
“You’re not a doctor. You’re not a weight loss expert. You’re a CRN, a 'criminal right now,'” said Judd.
Lopez is in jail without bond. She told a judge Wednesday she wants her own lawyer, so she’ll be back in the courtroom Friday at 1 p.m.