A Carrollton woman arrested Thursday and charged with trying to hire someone to kill her estranged husband initially asked a man she was dating to do the job, court records show.

But Frisco police have not charged Vera Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail in connection with the death of her husband, who was fatally shot in his home the day after Christmas. The murder-for-hire plot for which she now faces a criminal solicitation of capital murder charge never moved forward.

Guthrie-Nail's boyfriend, who is a police witness and not being named for his protection, never took her offers seriously and thought she was "just talking crazy," according to the arrest warrant affidavit filed in her case.

The two stopped dating after four months in February. But when the man saw news reports that Craig Nail had been fatally shot inside his Frisco home, he decided to go to police.

Nail, 36, was shot multiple times on the second floor of the house he used to share with Guthrie-Nail. The couple had long been separated.

Nail's girlfriend, Therisa Hofman, 38, was also shot that night as she walked into Nail's house through the garage. Hofman, who is helping Frisco authorities with the investigation, ran to a neighbor's house, and police were called.

"We have a victim and a witness that we have to protect," said Frisco police spokesman Sgt. Gerald Meadors said. "That's why we are not releasing very many details about this investigation. There are people who have to be protected, and we still have a shooter out there."

Divorce documents show the Nails had been embroiled in a bitter divorce and custody battle over their 6-year-old daughter since May 2006. Nail also had custody of a 16-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, according to court records.

During the divorce proceedings, she began dating the man who later went to police to say she asked him to kill her husband, according to the affidavit.

The man told police that he was also separated from his spouse when he was dating Guthrie-Nail. The couple's divorce was close to being complete – a final hearing had been set for Jan. 22 – and much of it was going in Nail's favor, court records say. A Collin County judge in May gave him custody of their 6-year-old daughter and their Frisco house. The girl was not in the house the night of the shooting, and Child Protective Services is caring for her. Guthrie-Nail's boyfriend said she told him that she "would rather go to prison than let [her husband] have her daughter," according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

The man told police that at one point Guthrie-Nail said she would "lure Craig to the house with a promise of sex and the chance to reconcile their marriage," the affidavit said. Then she said her boyfriend could "come into the house through the garage and kill Craig when he went upstairs."

He said that Guthrie-Nail gave him a picture of her husband and described the car he was driving, including the license plate. She also gave him her husband's address and phone number.

The man told police that Guthrie-Nail brought up a number of times the subject of killing her husband.

Once, while the two were at a restaurant eating dinner, the man said he saw a person whose car he had repossessed. Guthrie-Nail's boyfriend told her that the car owner threatened to kill him for taking his car. Her boyfriend told police that she asked him if the man who had threatened him might be willing to kill Nail. Then she went to the man and started talking to him, according to the affidavit.

The other man was not named in the arrest warrant affidavit. He later stopped by the house of Guthrie-Nail's boyfriend to ask for her phone number. He said that they "had business to talk about."

Police would not say whether that man is a suspect in the shootings of Nail and Hofman, or if they have contacted him. Guthrie-Nail was being held Thursday night at the Frisco City Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.