New Charges For NFL Player's Widow

The widow of slain professional football player Fred Lane was detained without bond Monday on bank robbery charges after court documents suggested she might have killed her husband to stop him from reporting the theft.

Deidra Lane appeared before a federal magistrate at the first of two court hearings Monday morning, this one to answer to bank larceny charges.

She had been free on $100,000 secured bond in connection with the July 6 slaying of Lane in the couple's Charlotte home. She is charged with first-degree murder and was to appear in court on that charge later Monday.

At the federal hearing, court documents were unsealed containing statements from an FBI investigator suggesting a possible motive in the murder case: Mrs. Lane killed her husband to keep him from telling police about her role in the 1998 theft of $41,200 from a bank.

In his affidavit, agent David Drew said Kisha Tennille Hudson, a friend of Fred Lane's, told homicide investigators that Lane "told her that Deidra Lane, his wife, had stolen money from a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn referred to the FBI agent's affidavit before he told a sobbing Deidra Lane that she would not get bail any time soon.

"Her greed appears to be at the center of both the federal and state charges," Horn said. "I find that she must be held without bond."

Last month, local prosecutors said Mrs. Lane shot the Indianapolis Colts running back in the chest as he walked through the front door. They said she hoped to collect on a $5 million insurance policy taken out on Lane earlier this year.

The couple was estranged at the time of the slaying. Mrs. Lane had given birth to the couple's daughter days before the shooting.

Mrs. Lane's attorney, Henderson Hill, said after the hearing "there is absolutely nothing to this allegation."

"There is a circle of Fred Lane's friends and supporters who want to lash out at Deidra," he said.

Horn did release Mrs. Lane's co-defendant, Natosha Watson, on $50,000 unsecured bond.

In arguing against bond for Mrs. Lane, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Whisler told the judge that several witnesses identified her from bank surveillance tapes. Combined with her police record, he said, she was a danger to the community and a risk of flight.

Whisler told Horn that Mrs. Lane has a criminal record that dates back to 1995. She was charged with attempting to rob a South Carolina credit union five years ago, he said. Mrs. Lane was arrested but allowed to complete a diversionary program and she was not convicted.

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