A woman pleaded guilty today to arranging the violent murder of her employer at a Glen Burnie dental practice in 2006 in an attempt to cover up a theft scheme.

On what was scheduled as the first day of her two-week trial, Shontay Hickman of Baltimore, who turns 37 on Tuesday, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in county Circuit Court in Annapolis. 

Judge Pamela L. North sentenced her to life in prison. 

Her co-defendant and cousin, Dante Jeter, 24, will now stand trial in mid-May.