Bitcoin For Murder: Woman Gets 10 Years In Prison After Paying ‘Hitman’ To Kill Husband
Bitcoin is now being used by bad people to satisfy their hatred.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a Mississippi woman was sentenced to spend a maximum of 10 years behind bars for her role in a botched murder-for-hire plot.
Forty-year-old Jessica Leeann Sledge pleaded guilty in February to hiring an alleged hitman on the dark web and paying him in Bitcoin to kill her now ex-husband in Mississippi.
US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves sentenced Sledge to 120 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine.
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Sledge declined to speak at her sentencing, allowing her written statement to the court to stand and allowing her attorney to speak on her behalf.
John M. Colette, her defense attorney, stated that his client was a “first-time offender” with “zero likelihood of recidivism.” He asked the court to consider a prison sentence of around five years.
Pelahatchie Woman Pleads Guilty in Murder-for-Hire Plot: Jessica Leeann Sledge of Pelahatchie pleaded guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot.
— FBI Jackson (@FBIJackson) 9 February 2022
Sledge admitted in court that between September and November last year she contacted an assassin over Whatsapp in an attempt to eliminate her spouse.
Oops: Alleged “Killer” Turns Out to Be FBI Agent
A special agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to prosecutors, was the “killer” she paid to carry out the assassination.
She scheduled a face-to-face meeting with the “killer” on November 1, 2021 in Brandon, Mississippi to deliver an additional payment and details of her intended target.
Bitcoin payments totaling about $10,000 were made by Sledge for the murder of “Victim 1” on October 4, October 9 and October 10, 2021, according to the author
Between October 22 and 26, Sledge gave the FBI agent specific details about her husband. Based on court documents, this contained various photos of her spouse as well as photos of the cars he usually drove, including license plate numbers.
Investigations have indicated that the intended target remained unharmed. Sledge waived her rights and revealed her involvement in the murder-for-hire scheme after her arrest.
Jessica Leeann Sledge. Image: MCSO
Not the first time Bitcoin has been used to hire hitmen
Sledge’s case is not the first involving the use of cryptocurrency to pay for guns-for-hire.
Federal prosecutors said in June that a Beverly Hills man admitted to using Bitcoin to try to hire a hitman to kill his ex-girlfriend after she wanted to end their brief affair.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said at the time that Scott Berkett, 25, pleaded guilty to the murder-for-hire scheme in which he paid about $13,000 in Bitcoin for the woman’s death.
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Kristy Lynn Felkins Photo: DOJ
Another woman has also pleaded guilty to federal charges of hiring a hitman in March of this year to murder her ex-husband using cryptocurrency.
The Justice Department said Kristy Lynn Felkins, 37, faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to using interstate commerce facilities to commit the murder-for-hire plot.
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