Would-be heiress Tatyana Remley was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison in California after she admitted trying to negotiate a $2 million deal on her husband's life.
The failed impresario was indicted in August after she was arrested in a sting operation by undercover agents in San Diego who she believed were hit men.
She brought three guns and an undisclosed cash bond for the murder of her husband Mark Remley, whom she left “like a scared puppy.”
However, she refused the murder request until Thursday when she struck a deal with San Diego prosecutors and her sentence was announced in Vista Superior Court.
“Tatyana sorted out whatever she said and he just followed her,” the couple's former business partner Erik Martonovich told
Would-be heiress Tatyana Remley was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison in California after she admitted trying to negotiate a $2 million deal on her husband's life
Tatyana was arrested after admitting that she planned to kill him and have his body turned over to an undercover officer, the San Diego Sheriff's Department said
“Mark was like a crying, scared puppy, and I never saw Mark say no to her.”
The couple married in 2011 and had already filed divorce proceedings 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 Soleil.
But the “Valitar” show was a spectacular flop and went bankrupt after just five of the planned 45 performances.
Tatyana, who claimed to be Russian and have a background in dressage, was the main attraction to the public and insisted on appearing on 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 at the end, when the whole cast lined up and everyone applauded, this blonde lady came in the middle, the other cast members separated for her and there was 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 finished school in the fourth grade and had a series of failed engagements to wealthy men.
And she was already fighting for custody of the son she shared with multimillionaire biotech tycoon Kenneth Woolcott, from whom she separated in 2004 after just 11 months of marriage.
Tatyana Remley brought a cash deposit for the attack and three guns to a Starbucks meeting, prosecutors said
Tatjana holds a belt around her husband Mark Remley's neck and leads him through a party
Remley was seen posing with her estranged husband's luxury sports car
The couple made headlines a decade ago when they opened a “horse-human acrobatic show” called Valitar at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in 2012, which soon went bankrupt
Las Vegas-based horse actor Erik Martonovich (left) told : “Tatyana ran everything.” Whatever she said went. And he just followed her. “Mark was like a crying, scared puppy.” Martonovich is pictured with Tatjana and Mark
Remley in an advertisement for her failed horse show in the San Diego area
“She was very, look how pretty I am,” Martonovich said.
“The persona she wanted to portray to the world was that she was like a beautiful Russian supermodel.” And maybe a supermodel with a touch of Barbie.
“I don't think she's really Russian, and she's not a supermodel. But I'm pretty sure she's good at being a gold digger.”
Tatjana and her husband, who inherited $26 million from his parents, experienced a series of failed business ventures and a series of breakups and reconciliations before their final separation in May last year.
On July 5, she was arrested with three guns in her home as it burned to the ground, and six days later she filed for divorce again, demanding $15,000 a month in spousal support.
In the petition, she claimed that her husband stood laughing as one of his friends raped her at gunpoint.
“I am in danger around the defendant,” she wrote.
“He has a history of previous arrests, including a recorded $50,000 bail, extreme verbal abuse and drug abuse, and he has very dangerous friends.”
“In the past he was advised to see a psychologist due to his mental instability.
“On May 21, 2023, friends of the defendant came to our house and broke down my bedroom door while I was locked inside. It was late at night and I was scared to death.
In the long run: Tatyana requested $15,000 a month in spousal support in her divorce filings to maintain her lavish lifestyle, which she admitted was “comfortable.”
Mark, who reportedly inherited $26 million from his parents, moved with Tatyana into the couple's $5.3 million pre-fire home in posh Del Mar, California
Judge David Danielson announced the sentence in Vista Superior Court
“They forced their way into my bedroom and held me at gunpoint. “I was raped by one of his friends, who also told me that he planned to kill me.”
Remley has denied abusing his wife, but at the time she was planning to murder him and provided “detailed information about how she wanted her husband killed and his body disposed of,” according to investigators who found her at the Starbucks in Solana Beach, where she was arrested on August 2nd.
She has been held at the Las Colinas Detention Center in Santee since her arrest and was scheduled to face a preliminary hearing within days.
She also admitted possessing a loaded and concealed firearm that was not registered to her, but a second charge of weapons possession was dropped.