Katy man arrested for trying to have his wife whacked

Speaking of weird news — we were, weren't we? — how about the story of John Sheroke, the former physician's assistant who tried to hire a hitman to kill his doctor wife? Call us old-fashioned, but we thought calling an assassin wasn't the appropriate course of action when you're having marital problems. Then again, we're not married, so what do we know?

According to prosecutors, Sheroke, 40, asked a co-worker at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital, where he worked until October 2005, to kill (or find someone else to kill) his 35-year-old wife, a gynecologist. The co-worker went to the police, who sent an officer posing as a hit man to meet with Sheroke a few days ago. "There was a recorded conversation in which the defendant offered to pay this undercover officer to kill his wife. He brought some money and told the undercover officer that he could get more money," prosecutor Brad Hart told KHOU — apparently, Sheroke offered the undercover cop a total of $10,000 and told him he could keep Shelley Ferrill Sheroke's Rolex watch. Sheroke allegedly asked the cop to make the murder look like a carjacking.

The odd thing, a neighbor told the Chronicle today, is that the Sherokes seemed to be the picture of happiness: Last month, John Sheroke even insisted he buy his wife a new $60,000 Mercedes convertible to replace her 2003 Volvo. (In light of what's happened, maybe he was counting on being able to keep the car for himself?) However, Hart said the couple had been in marriage counseling because John Sheroke had an affair, and he indicated that John might have been after his wife's insurance money. "He was a lot into money," the neighbor, Jay Shariff, said.

John Sheroke has been charged with solicitation of capital murder and is being held without bail.