Jessica Sledge Convicted in Bitcoin Murder-for-Hire Plot
Jessica Leeann Sledge.
A Mississippi woman has received the statutory maximum sentence in a murder-for-hire plot she tried to finance in Bitcoin.
Federal authorities said the Mississippi woman Jessica Leeann Sledge, 40, reached out to a “hitman” to kill someone, as Law&Crime previously reported. What Sledge apparently didn’t know, however, was that the so-called assassin she was playing with Bitcoin and intel was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Sledge, of the town of Pelahatchie, pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to using interstate commerce facilities for murder-for-hire, records show. At the hearing on Monday, US District Judge Carlton Reeves noted that the maximum prison sentence was 10 years behind bars, and 3 years of supervised release. That’s what he gave, with a $1,000 fine and a $100 special assessment fee. He emphasized that Sledge offered something of financial value for the murder to take place.
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
Defense attorney John M. Colette said his client was a first-time offender with “zero chance of recidivism.” With that in mind, he asked for a prison sentence of around five years behind bars.
Sledge used WhatsApp and paid the “hitman” in Bitcoin, authorities have said in court documents.
“SLEDGE made Bitcoin payments totaling approximately $10,000 for the murder of Victim 1 on October 4, October 9, October 10, 2021, via Internet transactions,” authorities said. “Using information obtained from the Internet contact, on October 22, 2021, an undercover police agent (‘UC’) contacted SLEDGE on her cell phone while posing as an assassin with whom SLEDGE believed she had contracted via the Internet.
Between October 22 and 26, Sledge provided specific information about the target to the undercover agent. This included several photos of the person and photos of several vehicles this person usually drove, including license plate numbers, documents state. Sledge and the undercover agent communicated through cellphone and WhatsApp, authorities said.
“During a series of recorded conversations, SLEDGE confirmed that she paid for the murder of Victim 1,” authorities said.
On the morning of October 26, Sledge contacted the agent through WhatsApp and said the target was driving to a Marathon gas station to get breakfast.
“Physical surveillance confirmed that Victim 1 arrived at the gas station in the vehicle described by SLEDGE,” authorities said. “A photo was taken of victim 1 at the gas station and forwarded to UC. UC sent the photo to SLEDGE, who confirmed that the person in the photo was the intended target.”
But the “hitman” Sledge hired was actually an FBI agent. On November 1st, in Brandon, Mississippi, she met with the person she believed to have carried out the murder.
“1. On November 1, 2021, SLEDGE agreed to meet with UC, who SLEDGE believed was the hitman she had hired to murder Victim 1. SLEDGE and UC met at a location in Rankin County, Mississippi,” documents state. “SLEDGE gave UC additional payment in cash and discussed the killing of Victim 1.”
According to the DOJ, “the intended victim was ultimately unharmed” and Sledge “admitted his role in the murder-for-hire plot”:
Sledge admitted that between September 2021 and November 1, 2021, in the Southern District of Mississippi, she used facilities of interstate commerce with the intent to hire a hitman to murder a person in Mississippi. Sledge used the internet, her mobile phone and the “Whatsapp” application to arrange a murder-for-hire.
[Booking photo via Madison County Detention Center]
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