Police foil murder-for-hire plot orchestrated from KC Jail
SEATTLE -- A murder-for-hire plot in which a felon wanted a suspected police informant "wet with gasoline and dried with a match" fell apart when one of his hired hit-men turned actual police informant, according to the Seattle Police Department.
The murder's would-be orchestrator was arrested Jan. 7 with a fake police badge and a car full of body armor, cash and guns. He was booked into King County Jail on an outstanding felony warrant for burglary.
While in jail Jan. 20, the felon hired a fellow inmate who was about to be released, as well as a man on the outside, to kill the man he believed put him in jail, according to police.
According to police, detectives watched over the next nine days as the felon arranged to pay for the murder, drew a map of the victim's house and instructed his accomplices to "wet him with gasoline, dry him with a match."
Seemingly proving the felon isn't the greatest judge of who is and isn't a police informant, the inmate he hired to kill the intended victim went to the police with all the information.
While taking steps to protect the intended victim, detectives watched the newly released inmate meet with the man on the outside, discuss the murder and drive by the victim's house, according to police.
On Tuesday, a SWAT team arrested the man on the outside, who was booked into King County Jail for solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder.
Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the plot was charged with a new crime.
“This was a complex investigation with dedicated detectives following the case through to the end," according to the Seattle Police Department. "A probable homicide was averted, and the suspects responsible will be held accountable.”
Good job!
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Frankly - while I am generally opposed to capital punishment in most cases - there are a couple of situations where I think it ought to be nearly mandatory: murder other than in clear self-defense committed while in custody, and premeditated attempted murder in any form committed while in custody (quite possibly also include forcible rape.) The operable principle is to treat a prison as a "city of refuge" in the biblical sense: if you have even killed someone you will be safe there so long as you abide by the rules and especially do not kill or try to kill someone again. But if you muff the second chance, then we don't mess around with you anymore: you get needled and we are done with you.
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Also, inmates should be put under intense surveillance so that it becomes very easy to discover just who is culpable when someone is killed and so that conversations about having someone killed are just routinely recorded. There should be absolutely NO legal expectation of privacy for prison inmates except when they are consulting with legal counsel - and even that should be recorded and sealed against any event of legal counsel conspiring to commit crimes on behalf of an inmate. Prison is not "the privacy of your own home".
This is why conspiracies almost always fail. You are dependant on a dishonest person to fulfill his end of the plan, when he can't be trusted to begin with.
You can't fix stupid.
 @Powderhound It's not really a matter of stupid - many criminals are quite intelligent - it's really a matter of "rules are for other people" thinking. Some people just never quite learn that they are accountable for their acts: they think if they don't get caught or if the witnesses "disappear" then they have actually done no real wrong.
And often as not, that kind of thinking cannot be fixed by strictly human means.
 @JLS1950 They are smart in some ways but stupid in others. I stand by my statement.
 @Powderhound You must have missed the stupid-fix recipe in the article. Wet the idiot with gasoline, and dry him with a match. :D
(I don't suggest that for all forms of stupidity, just the ones that cost others' their lives or quality of life.)
What's this world coming to when you can't even trust fellow inmates? Â
Criminals don't go to jail for there high I.Q. This guy's hit list just got a little longer...the informant.Â
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Hopefully this is strike three.
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Good job informant!!! need more people like you~
How's that criminal career treating you? Bet you wish you finished high school now, eh?
 @Avalonis A high school diploma would not help people like this.