Generally speaking, the new boyfriend of your ex-girlfriend is, by default, your sworn enemy. It doesn’t matter if the dude solved world hunger and adopts sheltered puppies, he cannot and will not be a better lover than you. This insecurity is veiled in hatred.
But then there is that one-in-a-billion chance that your lover’s new beau betrays her to save your life. And that’s the story I will present to you today.
Former Marine cutie Laura Buckingham is due in court to face charges of criminal intent to commit first-degree murder for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill Brad Sutherland, her ex-husband and father of her three-year-old son. Sutherland would be dead right now if it weren’t for fellow Marine and Buckingham’s recent boyfriend, Joseph Chamblin.
Chamblin is infamously known as the Marine who was photographed pissing on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. He was honorably discharged in 2011 after the photo became public, receiving international criticism. According to Death and Taxes, Chamblin does not regret the incident, says he would do it again, and currently sells t-shirts depicting a faceless yellow figure in a set of crosshairs coupled with the words “KEEP CALM AND PISS ON!”
Laura Buckingham has had struggles of her own. The Daily Beast reports that battles PTSD from being molested as a child and serving combat time in Iraq and off the Somalian coast. She seemed to assimilate successfully into her life in Indiana–opening her own bakery and even gracing the cover of Southern Living Magazine.
Buckingham met Chamblin and the two were initially a match made it heaven. Buckingham made the poor decision to abandon her bakery and move in with Chamblin in Tennessee after she grew irritated with the weekly long-distance treks to Indiana.
Here are the two pictured together:
That’s when she began to talk crazy to Chamblin about her ex Brad Sutherland. She and Sutherland had a rocky relationship, indicative in one incident when she left Sutherland with a black eye and broken lip after accusing him of checking out other girls. Despite their relationship deficiencies, when Laura became pregnant for the second time with Brad’s child, they planned on getting married. Buttttttt, their September wedding was called off when Brad learned that Buckingham was sleeping with a local narcotics officer and U.S. Army vet.
Sutherland pictured below.
Soon after, Buckingham began dating Chamblin, even making the risky decision of introducing her ex to her current beau.
“From the get-go, I liked him,” Sutherland said of Chamblin.
This proved to be a life-saving psuedo-friendship, as Laura began propositioning Chamblin to take Brad “out of the picture,” likely rooted in the fear that Brad may take her to court to get full custody of their child. Chamblin claims she approached him because “she knew he’d been in the military in the past, that he was a Marine Corps sniper, and she felt that maybe he had friends that he had served with and would make her boyfriend disappear.”
Chamblin then said he’d set her up with a contracted killer, but instead went straight to the police. That’s where they devised the plan to set Laura up.
Laura met with an undercover cop in Louisville, Kentucky who was posing as a hitman, and she ‘haggled’ the imposter down to $3,000 for him to kill the father of her children. Police then staged the mock assassination with Sutherland inside a parking garage, even conjuring up a fake photo of Sutherland’s dead body to show Laura.
Sutherland told the Daily Beast how difficult it was for him to learn his ex would go to such great lengths to see him dead.
“My life’s only worth $3,000? It’s like a … used car lot. Like bring us your tax check and we’ll get you a car — only this is more like bring us your tax check, and we’ll assassinate your ex-fiancee.”
“When the guy went to show the photos of my dead body — my son’s right there,” Sutherland said. “The fact that she would let a hired killer into the house while my son is there hurts me more than taking an attempt on my life.”
Buckingham was arrested on February 24 and charged with intent to commit first-degree murder. She’ll be released on $150,000 bail.
Sutherland states that he is forever indebted to Chamblin:
“I trusted him and I still trust him. I owe the guy my life,” he said.
[h/t Daily Beast, Death and Taxes]