As I Lay Dying's Tim Lambesis charged with seeking to have his wife killed

Police: Heavy metal star hired hitman

The lead singer of the metal band As I Lay Dying has been arrested and charged with seeking to have his wife killed, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said.

Authorities said Tuesday that Tim Lambesis tried to contract an undercover detective posing as a killer for hire to murder his estranged wife, who lives in Encinitas, California.

Arraignment was set for Thursday afternoon at North Division Court in Vista.

The department said it learned on May 2 that Lambesis, 32, had asked someone to carry out the killing and an investigation was initiated.

The investigation culminated Tuesday afternoon, "when Lambesis solicited an undercover detective to kill his wife," it said. He was arrested without incident at a business in Oceanside and taken to the Encinitas Station and booked into the Vista Detention Facility.

Last September, Meggan Lambesis filed with San Diego Superior Court to have the marriage dissolved.

The band issued a statement Wednesday through its record label, Metal Blade, to its fans saying: "As we post this, the legal process is taking it's course and we have no more information than you do. There are many unanswered questions, and the situation will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. We'll keep you informed as best we can.

"Our thoughts right now are with Tim, his family, and with everyone else affected by this terrible situation."

As I Lay Dying was nominated in 2008 for a Grammy Award for best metal performance. During the decade since it was formed, the band has released seven studio albums and a live CD, according to its website.

Asked last year in an interview with HardNoise Online Radio about how his time on the road affected his home life, Lambesis said, "If there was a way to be home but still make a living playing music, I would do that in a heartbeat.

"But the catch is that, as a profession, this is what I'm passionate about. And then my personal life, what I'm passionate about is my loved ones back home. So, you know, those two have a conflict with each other. The only thing I can do is find a balance where, if I am gone a month on tour, then I find a month to be home and just kind of even it out that way."

Asked in January about whether his group was a Christian metal band, he told NoiseCreep that the band had decided not to discuss "the spiritual topic" so that listeners would focus on their music.

"We didn't preach at our shows, our goal has always been to just write the best music we can write," he said. "Of course religion has some influence on the things that we write about just like all of our life experiences do but as a band, we want to be judged on the music rather than what our personal beliefs are."