It worked on Ronda Black of Kelowna, so police tried it on her alleged accomplice, Howard Steadman.

Steadman, 54, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to the 1998 murder of Ronda Black's husband Keith.

Black is serving 10 years in prison and the Crown alleges that she had help in dismembering and burying her husband's body and it came from Steadman.

Undercover cops used an elaborate sting to gather evidence on Black, including inviting her into a fictitious criminal organization with the lure of money.

Steadman apparently fell for the same ploy.

The jury heard Tuesday how an undercover police officer approached Steadman's nephew in Brooks, Alberta in September 2002 -- four years after the murder.

The undercover cop, posing as a member of an organized crime group, testified how he befriended Steadman's nephew.

The undercover officer then began to shower Steadman's unemployed nephew with cash for doing menial tasks including driving cars to various drop off points in Alberta, no questions asked.

Steadman's nephew eventually introduced his uncle to the undercover cop who was exploring the idea of setting up a lodge in Banff funded by dirty money. The undercover cop also begins to give Steadman cash for dropping off cars, again no questions asked.

The undercover police officer testified that Steadman began to trust him and open up about his past.

"He was jumping on the bandwagon. He told me that he had done things that were not good."

The officer says that Steadman made his first reference to Ronda Black in December 2002 when he suggested that police had tapped his phone.

"He told me that police had been listening because a guy had disappeared from his home," testified the officer. "He said the wife did it and that she was a crazy bitch."

Steadman's trial began Monday and could last up to five weeks.

Link: Ronda Black Guilty