Man jailed over plot to kill ex-girlfriend

A New York man who had planned to kill a bear and wear its pelt and use its claws to kill his ex-girlfriend has been jailed for at least five years for trying to hire a hitman to kill her.

Clyde Gardner, 57, had planned to kill her and make it look like she had been mauled by a bear as she took out the garbage, Associated Press reports.

The plan included him wearing the bear's paws on his feet so no human footprints would be left behind, it reports.

He then abandoned that plan and was caught instead trying to hire someone to kill her in a staged car crash.

Gardner was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison and will have an order of protection preventing contact with the woman until 2031.

The junkyard owner had hatched the bizarre plan after his girlfriend and mother of his child kicked him out of their home in Malone, near the Canadian border, last year after enduring an abusive five-year relationship.

He then carefully watched her movements, hiding in the woods with binoculars to establish her routines.

Gardner approached a friend and gave him a photo of the woman, her car license plate number and $US500 toward a $US15,000 payment to kill her in a car crash.

Gardner, an experienced demolition derby driver, advised the man how to make it look like an accident, AP reports.

He also told him that if the crash didn't kill the woman, he should take a piece of broken glass and slit her throat, Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Crawford said.

However, the man went to police, and he was sent back with a hidden recorder to get Gardner on tape talking about the horrific plan.

Gardner claimed that he had only said it because he was drunk and did not intend to go through with the plan.