An Illinois woman is accused of pleading with her ex-boyfriend to murder her husband so that she could be with her once-lover again and not have to split her marital assets.

Allison Salinas, 48, has been charged with solicitation of murder, court records reveal. The Pekin woman was once a political candidate with aspirations of unseating Tammy Duckworth in the U.S. Senate in 2022. Now she remains in jail and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the crime.

An affidavit of probable cause sheds light on her alleged plot to have her husband killed. The key to the story began in 2021.

Salinas is said to have contacted her ex-boyfriend from some 30 years ago when they were teenagers. He lived in Dallas, Texas, and they “began a long-distance relationship.” All the while, she was still married to her husband.

The ex-boyfriend testified during a July 9 interview that, at the time, he “felt that during the relationship Allison began to attempt to manipulate him after learning about an inheritance he had received.” And at some point, she allegedly “began discussing her desire to leave her husband for him without having to split her and her husband”s assets in a divorce.”

The affidavit filed Thursday from the State’s Attorney’s Office for Tazewell County, Illinois, goes further in its allegations. Salinas didn’t just “discuss her desire” – she hatched a plan.

“Allison began discussing the idea of soliciting someone to murder her husband around November or December of 2023,” the court document states. “[The ex-boyfriend] initially tried to deflect the conversation because Allison had insinuated her desire for him to kill her husband so that they could be together.”

The ex-boyfriend maintained that he made it clear he would not harm her husband – allegedly leading her to consider the idea of finding someone else to do the crime.

The ex had reportedly contacted the Pekin Police Department about Salinas’ plot in February of 2024, and he “indicated it had been a frequent topic of conversation between the two.” But it wasn’t until this month, when a video was posted to Facebook “implicating” Salinas in the plan, that the investigation gained steam.

It is unclear what was on this video.

“When [the ex-boyfriend] did not hear back from the police after his report in February of 2024, he began recording some of his phone calls with Allison,” the affidavit states. He claimed that she talked about the plot for several months and he “became frustrated with the topic of conversation,” eventually suggesting he could find someone to do the crime for her in hopes she would “drop the topic.”

“However, Allison then began to repeatedly ask if he had found someone. He explained that with Allison undeterred, he then lied to her and told her the Secret Service had contacted him about the murder for hire plot,” the affidavit goes on. “This stopped the detailed conversations, but up until about two weeks ago, Allison was still asking him if he ever heard anything further and if he thought the Secret Service was still investigating.”

The ex-boyfriend is said to have provided recorded telephone calls and text messages to authorities that included moments where Salinas “discusses different ways in which her husband could be murdered.” When he suggested maybe some old friends of his father could help, she allegedly said, “I need you to make this happen.”

On May 27, 2024, Salinas began a new text thread by sending the man a picture of her husband along with the words, “There’s ur pic u need,” the affidavit says. He responded with a thumbs up emoji to which she responded urgently.

“Can’t talk, don’t text back but please with everything I mean to you… Just take care of this,” she is said to have written. Later that day, she reportedly wrote to the now-witness, “Don’t text back. We got into it and now I’m trash and I don’t deserve to be happy.”

She then apparently suggested her husband planned to stop paying a lease on a shop he owned, which would cause her to struggle financially. “Please make him go away,” she reportedly added.

Roughly two months later, Salinas allegedly sent a screenshot of a Google search where she wrote “can a wife testify against” and highlighted a search result reading, “an individual cannot be forced to testify against their spouse in a criminal case.”

The affidavit also noted an interview with another witness, a woman who lived with Salinas in the fall of 2023 and with whom she had “become close friends.” That friend reportedly told investigators that she was in the passenger seat of Salinas’ vehicle when Salinas had a video call with the ex-boyfriend. The two were “openly discussing finding a ‘ghost’ to murder Allison’s husband,” the affidavit states, with Salinas reportedly later informing her friend that “ghost” meant “hitman.”

“On another occasion Allison discussed killing her husband by sneaking shellfish into his food, which he is allergic to,” the affidavit adds.

On July 22, a Perkin police detective interviewed the suspect.

Salinas reportedly “acknowledged that she had been discussing the murder of her husband” with her rekindled romantic partner “for an extended period.” While she “indicated that she had not been in a good mental state,” she held that she was not crazy or unstable. She also is said to have acknowledged how her ex-boyfriend “would not have had any indication that she was not serious.”

Even more details emerged as the topic of spousal immunity was broached.

“Allison indicated she had learned about spousal immunity from her previous husband, Delbert Mills, who was found guilty of murdering his wife in Texas in 2003. Allison was actively having an affair at the time of the murder, but Allison indicated she was not involved,” the affidavit states.

“Allison stated she had not learned what Delbert had done until after they were married shortly after the murder,” it goes on. “Allison stated that Delbert had pushed them to get married so Allison could not testify against him in court.”

The final points of the court document state Salinas admitted to sending the picture of her husband to her ex-boyfriend. When the detective suggested this was evidence of her showing who or what needed to be “take[n] care of,” she remained silent.

The FBI also assisted in the investigation, the Perkin Police Department stated.

Salinas had a detention hearing on Friday. It is unclear when she will next be in court.