MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) – A man who plotted to have his wife killed before Christmas so he could enjoy the holidays without her pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and other counts despite the strenuous objection of prosecutors.

“This is as close to attempted murder as you can get,” Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly told County Court Judge Tammy Robbins, who accepted the plea in an agreement with defense attorneys.

Santhosh Paul was arrested last December after telling an undercover police officer posing as a hit man that he was willing to pay $200,000 to have his wife killed if it happened before Christmas. He wanted to be able to mourn her before the holidays, District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Paul, 32, first tried to hire a friend to do the killing, but the friend refused and secretly called police, who arranged a meeting in a Long Island restaurant parking lot between Paul and an undercover detective posing as a hit man, prosecutors said.

Paul, of North Bellmore, took his now 4-year-old son to the meeting, paid a $2,700 deposit and gave the fake hit man a copy of a $1 million life insurance policy on his wife as proof he would be able to pay after she was dead.

He had taken out three insurance policies on his wife that would have paid $3.8 million in benefits, prosecutors said Monday.