The estranged husband of a woman who strangled an intruder with her bare hands last week has been accused of hiring the intruder as part of a murder plot, Portland police said.

Michael James Kuhnhausen, 58, was charged Thursday with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.

Detectives said he helped disarm the security alarm at his wife's home on Sept. 6 and let Edward Haffey in. Haffey, armed with a claw hammer, then waited for Susan Kuhnhausen to arrive home from her nursing job.