I actually don’t plan to follow this morbid story every step of the way, but based on our web traffic count, there’s clearly been a lot of interest by NCS readers in the arrest of As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis for allegedly attempting to pay someone to murder his wife, Meggan Lambesis. So, we’ll follow the story at least a little bit further.
The latest news (as reported here) is that Tim Lambesis was arraigned in Vista Superior Court (San Diego) this afternoon on one criminal charge of solicitation of murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 9 years in prison. He entered a plea of not guilty and bail was set at $8 million — although the prosecutors asked for bail in the amount of $20 million.
The court further ordered that if Lambesis makes bail, he is to have no contact with his wife or their three children. The next court date will apparently be a preliminary hearing on July 10.
Further details about the hearing and the prosecution’s case emerged from live tweets by Angie Lee, a freelance reporter for San Diego’s KFMB-TV who was in attendance. According to her tweets, prosecutors told the court the following:
That Lambesis gave an undercover agent cash, his wife’s picture, gate codes, and dates of when to kill her — and told the “hit man” to kill his wife when he (Lambesis) would be with the kids in order to have an alibi;
That prosecutors have recordings of what Lambesis said to the undercover agent; and
That Meggan Lambesis is still afraid for her life, not knowing whether Lambesis”put out other hits”
According to Angie Lee’s tweets, Lambesis’ defense attorney Anthony Salerno said that one phrase that would explain the case against his client is “scum bag snitch set up”. His attorney also said that Lambesis did not intend to harm anyone.
(credit to Metality for unearthing these news sources)
UPDATE: Video of the hearing has now surfaced via an NBC affiliate in San Diego, and it includes still more unsavory details from the prosecution’s case. Â Check it out (and the credit on finding this one goes to MetalSucks):
17 Responses to “TIM LAMBESIS PLEADS NOT GUILTY; BAIL SET; FURTHER DETAILS OF PROSECUTION’S CASE COME OUT”
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As I’m not privy to the details of the case, I make no claim about knowing whether or not he’s guilty (although it does look bad), but can I just say I’m gobsmacked by the reaction of the interhole on other unnamed blogs? I’m seeing a lot of, “Well, she wanted money in the divorce settlement, so of course he wanted to kill her” or “She’s a bitch, so I think trying to have her killed is totally reasonable.” When the hell did, “I don’t like you anymore” or “this divorce is messy” become a reasonable defense, legally or morally, for putting a hit out on someone? I’m sure divorce sucks and there are hard feelings galore, but executing the mother/father of your children is now a reasonable response according to Joe Sixpack? Granted, those comment sections aren’t filled with the erudite bunch we get here, but still, what the fucking fuck, internet?
I weep for humanity. More than usual.
Shit. Some people seem to think their metal gods can do no wrong. Also, many people are as dumb as rocks.
Don’t read the interhole too often. It’ll give you cancer.
i’ve been a huge fan of Lambesis for years, and every horrible tidbit that comes out is like a kick in the balls. i know from personal experience that divorces are rough, especially when kids are involved, but how messed up in the head do you have to be to think hiring a hitman is a reasonable solution?
If someone asked me out of the blue which metal frontman had tried to contract a hit on his wife, Tim Lambesis would be one of the last people I’d ever think of. That’s one reason this whole story is so befuddling. I guess it’s yet another reminder that what we think we know about celebrities from a distance is only a surface impression. We don’t see what goes on outside the public eye, much less what goes on inside the mind.
very well said.
i’m having my own trivial mini moral dilemma, here. i have everything this man has ever recorded on my mp3 player. i absolutely hate the idea of just throwing out something that’s brought me so much joy. but i honestly don’t know if i’m going to be able to stomach listening to his voice after this.
ah crap, i just remembered the tshirts hanging in my closet.
dammit….
Way I figure it is, a vocalist is a vocalist, it took way more than him to make the great music that As I Lay Dying has done. Besides, its the same problem with everything, do we as people like bands because of the music or because of who they are? Its the same thing with politics. Yeah Tim Lambesis has let down the entire metal community but its not his band mates fault that he committed this atrocity.
Understand, that sadly metal musicians have a line to toe, mainstream media always wants to demonize, and make anyone who listens to metal, or any metal musician into “a spawn of satan” sadly this being said metal musicians especially in big bands like As I Lay Dying need to really watch what they do, guilty or not (not enough facts are out yet), this is actually starting to draw a little too much attention than I personally like, I give it another week or two and we’ll have the highly conservative people launching an attack on heavy metal once again like what always happens.
Dont worry man..Im sure we can bring in enough people who will be willing to testify that As I Lay Dying isnt actually a metal band 🙂
Ha!
Normally I’d agree with you about what’s likely to happen, but the right-wingers may lay off of this because of Lambesis being an outspoken Christian. Now if he’d been singing about Satan his whole career, it would be different.
If you go through and purge your collection of every band that has a member whose a shitstain to the human race youre going to find yourself losing a lot of music.
You may as well toss all your Dissection cds, and the first Emperor full length…Dont forget Darkthrone’s Panzerfaust and Transilvanian Hunger.
This question comes up time and again…usually involving Varg, and while I dont think anyone should keep something that makes them uncomfortable..there really is something to be said about being able to separate the artist from his work.
This whole case has my world turned on its side. I only got into metal a couple of years ago (considering I’m only 17), and As I Lay Dying were integral to my introduction into more extreme and underground bands. I’ve always unconditionally loved everything they’ve done (except for Decas- that was a mistake), perhaps partly due to that pseudo-nostalgia that has developed. I connected most with these guys as opposed to any other band in the metalcore scene (e.g. Killswitch Engage, God Forbid, Shadows Fall, etc.), perhaps purely because they live about fifteen minutes away from me. Hell, the record store I go to is right next to Tim’s tattoo parlor of choice. They were the first band I ever really idolized, and I always kept a little bit of that adoration with me as I progressed to death metal, black metal, and other more extreme subgenres. They brought the newfound excitement I had found in music due to my discovery of metal right to my front porch.
Even if Tim ends up being acquitted, I will probably never see him or the band in the same way. The mere notion of this accusation undermines everything I thought this band stood for, so that now I don’t know where to put the nostalgic adoration of my early metal years that he and As I Lay Dying had for so long symbolized.
I’ll leave it at that. I don’t know what more I can vent. Thank you to NCS for giving me somewhere to vent where I won’t be the subject of fifty IMN rage comments. This post pops my cherry on real NCS comments, though I’ve been reading the blog for about six months.
Glad you felt like getting this off your chest, and doing it here. I also feel very let down by all of this. Even though I’ve moved on to different things over the years, I was really into the early releases of AILD when they came out, and they aren’t going to sound the same — sounds irrational to say that, but that’s the way I feel at the moment. But I also think Tim Lambesis is a different person today from the person he was when those albums came out. Maybe a victim of his own success.
Thanks again for spending some time at this site, and for the comment.
Hang tough Tim, hang tough \m/
http://metalmusicblog.com/2013/05/10/tim-lambesis-my-reflections/
How long has this guy been locked up? I ask because I just saw these guys at the end of March. Funny they stood on stage talking about bunch of pro Jesus rhetoric, all the while, he is putting a hit out on his wife. Very un-Jesus like, my man!
Disregard, just checked the link to the news article. That’s pretty fucked up