Loretta Luttrell, the 70-year-old Caddo Parish woman charged with having her husband murdered, is alone, scared and confused -- an aging woman with Alzheimer's who was taken advantage of by others involved in the case, her attorney said Friday.

That view is very different from the one held by law enforcement, who say Luttrell agreed to pay $1,000 to have her husband, Ernest, killed so she could sell his property and give money to a relative who had been cut out of his will. She had the presence of mind to leave early for church the morning of the murder and notify the neighbor who had recruited the hit man, Caddo sheriff's investigators said.

Luttrell was in court on Friday for an attorney to enroll to represent her. She will remain jailed without bond.

The petite septuagenarian was wearing jail coveralls and sitting in a wheelchair as she appeared before Caddo District Judge John Mosely via video linkup from jail. She acknowledged who she was but said nothing else during the hearing, which lasted a couple of minutes before she was wheeled back to her cell.

Mrs. Luttrell's daughter said she suffers from moderate Alzheimer's and could not have come up with a plot to kill her husband.

Defense attorney Michael Vergis said Luttrell is not the kind of person the charges suggest.

"She's a very nice lady. She's scared and alone and a little bit confused," Vergis said outside the courtroom. "Everything I've seen so far is that someone close to Mrs. Luttrell was clearly trying to take advantage of her."

Tina VanMoerkerque, who lived on the Luttrells' land and did odd jobs for them, is accused of recruiting a hit man at the urging of Mrs. Luttrell. Erick Crain, a Shreveport man with an extensive arrest record for minor drug crimes, is accused of killing Mr. Luttrell.

Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator, whose office investigated the case, said it was "like a Lifetime movie."

"Anytime there is somebody that is dead, it is heinous," Prator said. "But when you start having the fact that it was pre-planned; the fact that a loved one was involved with it; the fact that a housekeeper sets it up..."

Mr. Luttrell was retired from Borden. He worked his land and had recently gotten a bonus payment after leasing the mineral rights, investigators said. His wife was arrested shortly after he was buried Thursday afternoon.

The Luttrell case will go to the grand jury later this summer. Mrs. Luttrell and the other two defendants will be arraigned after that.