A Skowhegan woman was ordered held without bail Monday morning in a New Hampshire courtroom on charges that she was an accessory and co-conspirator in the murder of her brother’s former wife.

Michele D. Corson, 43, was arraigned in connection with the death of Amanda Warf on March 7, according to New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell.

Warf, 36, was found dead with her throat slit in an abandoned cement factory in Exeter, N.H. She was the former wife of Corson’s brother, Aaron Desjardins, 36, of Epping, N.H., who is charged with murder.

Corson is charged with taking a gun from Skowhegan to New Hampshire to help her brother commit murder, Morrell said.

“A text message was sent to Michele directing her to bring the gun from Maine down to new Hampshire to assist in the homicide,” Morrell said by phone. “She did, in fact, bring a gun down.”

Morrell said the gun was an automatic .32-caliber German Mauser pistol. She would not say how the gun was used in connection with the homicide.

Corson has applied for a court-appointed lawyer.

Sarah Desjardins, Aaron Desjardin’s wife, is alleged to have sent the text, according to court documents. She is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension or prosecution.

Corson, a mother of three grown children, was arrested April 18 at her home in Skowhegan on a fugitive-from-justice warrant in connection with the case.

New Hampshire state police served Corson with arrest warrants charging her with conspiracy to commit murder and being an accomplice to first-degree murder.

Corson waived extradition to New Hampshire on April 25. Authorities from that state arrived at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison on Friday to take her back to face charges.

Corson is scheduled for a probable cause hearing May 13 in Exeter, N.H., District Court.

Aaron Desjardins has denied that he killed Warf. In an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader two days before his arrest last month, Desjardins said he was at home with his wife, his sister and his young son when the body was found. Warf is the mother of the young boy.

At the time of the homicide, Warf was living in Hampton, N.H., with her boyfriend, according to the report.

Aaron and Sarah Desjardins have been arraigned and waived their probable cause hearings. They have been bound over for trial in Superior Court.

Morrell said Corson’s charge of being an accomplice to first degree murder is the same level of crime as is a felony murder charge in New Hampshire.

It is punishable by life in prison without parole.

The conspiracy charge is also a felony, punishable in New Hampshire by 15 to 30 years in prison, Morrell said.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367 dharlow@centralmaine.com

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