Coweta County riding instructor Monday paid $500

down and promised $20,000 more after an insurance

settlement to a hit man if he would kill her

husband of three months, according to the Georgia

Bureau of Investigation.

The

problem for Courtney Kimbrough, 37, 79 Kelly Farm

Rd., Newnan, was that the "hit man" was

an undercover G.B.I. agent, said J.T. Ricketson,

special agent in charge of the G.B.I.'s

Greenville office.

Officers

took her into custody her after the exchange of

money, Ricketson said. "She was wearing her

riding outfit when arrested."

Kimbrough,

also known as Courtney Jacob, faces a charge of

criminal attempt to commit murder after being

arrested in a sting operation at an undisclosed

Peachtree City restaurant, Ricketson said. A

preliminary hearing was scheduled in Fayetteville

for Kimbrough Tuesday, but results were

unavailable at deadline.

Her

husband, Robert Kimbrough, 45, "was

completely caught off guard by this,"

Ricketson said. "He's in some disbelief,

which is natural, I guess."

"Jacob

became the subject of an investigation earlier

this month when Peachtree City police learned

that she reportedly had contacted several people

in the hope of finding someone to kill her

husband," a G.B.I. report said.

Police

asked for help from the G.B.I. and the Fayette

County District Attorney's office, the report

said.

She

was arrested after "providing an undercover

G.B.I. agent with money to follow through with

the murder-for-hire and with items to identify

her husband," the report said. One of those

items was a photograph of her husband taken at

their wedding in August, Ricketson said.

The

undercover agent met with Jacob several times

prior to Monday's arrest, the report said.

Kimbrough,

who works for BellSouth in Atlanta, had children

from a previous marriage who visited on some

weekends, but none was living with the couple,

officials said.

Ricketson

wouldn't speculate on a possible motive, but

added that "money was mentioned during the

undercover meetings." He said Jacob told the

undercover agent that the bulk of the hit money

would come from an insurance settlement

"after the job was done."

Jacob

was being held in the Fayette County jail.

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