A mistake by her former defense attorney turned out to be good news for Rebecca Simpson of Bridgeport, who had been convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill the wife of a former lover. Fort Worth District Judge Bob Gill ruled Friday that Simpson's former attorney, Ray Bass of Houston, had failed to tell her that prosecutors had offered her five years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty before her trial. After hearing testimony, jurors had sentenced her to 25 years in prison. Gill threw out the trial verdict, ordered a new trial, and prosecutors offered the five-year deal again. Simpson quickly accepted. The deal cut 20 years off her sentence for trying to hire an undercover hitman to kill Shemane Watts in 2003. Officials say Simpson could be out of prison in less than a year.