SEATTLE -- A widow accused of using her son and a friend to kill her husband changed her plea Thursday morning to guilty in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to seek a lesser sentence.

Ron Whitehead

Velma Ogden-Whitehead pleaded guilty to felony murder for the March 18, 2005 murder of 61-year-old Ronald Whitehead, who was shot to death near Sea-Tac Airport in a crime investigators say was made to look like a carjacking gone bad.

On several occasions after her husband was killed, Ogden-Whitehead, 50, invited the media into her home to plead for the shooter to come forward.

"We have to live with the fact that he's gone every day. But that person has to live with the fact that he murdered someone everyday," she said in an interview after the murder.

But after an investigation lasting more than a year, detectives said the evidence showed that Ogden-Whitehead plotted with her son from a previous marriage, John Odgen, and Ogden's friend, Wilson Sayachack, to kill Whitehead for insurance money.

Wilson Sayachack is shown in this file photo.

All three were charged with first-degree murder, and Ogden-Whitehead could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of the charge.

In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors said they would recommend that Ogden-Whitehead spend 20 years in prison for for her role in the killing.

Investigators said she paid Sayachack $1,000 to commit murder.

"It was understood that some force would be involved," the judge read from documents in court on Thursday. According to court documents, Sayachack hid in the trunk of Whitehead's car, crawled into the back seat and shot Whitehead in the head.

Ogden, who was sitting in the passenger seat, helped to push Whitehead from the car, and the stepson shot him three more times as he lay in the street, detectives said.

On Thursday, Odgen-Whitehead admitted to letting Sayachak hide in her husband's car before he left for work. She also told Sayachak where to find guns in her home.

"(When asked) whether she knew he'd be killed, she denies that (she knew)," said deputy prosecutor Craig Peterson. Prosecutors said the Whiteheads were deep in debt and that Velma, who was having an affair, collected more than $1 million in insurance, property and investments when Ron was killed.

Ogden-Whitehead began spending the money on trips to Las Vegas and new cars, prosecutors wrote.

The plea deal was introduced last week shortly after the gun prosecutors believe was used to kill Whitehead surfaced in an unrelated case.

Investigators broke the case when they subpoenaed cell-phone records from the time of the killing, and saw that Sayachack and Ogden had exchanged 61 text messages.

Ogden-Whitehead gave Sayachack the prepaid cell phone he used to communicate with Ogden, detectives said.

In January, Sayachack went on trial for his role in the killing, but a mistrial was declared after investigators discovered a gun believed to be the one used to kill Whitehead.

During an unrelated drug investigation, King County detectives found the Makarov 9 mm pistol while searching a house in Puyallup.

The third trial is now set for Aug. 13. Peterson said he has not asked Ogden-Whitehead to testify in the upcoming trial.

Sayachack's first trial ended in a hung jury in February with most jurors favoring acquittal.