DA: Inmate plotted to kill girl
April 11, 2007
Adapted from the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader
A man facing trial on child rape charges allegedly offered an inmate $5,000 to kill the young girl so his case would go away, said the county district attorney.
The 38-year-old man attempted to carry out his plan by soliciting help from two inmates at the county correctional facility, the district attorney said. He offered one of the inmates $5,000 to kill the girl.
The man denied he tried to have the girl killed as he was led to his arraignment before the judge.
The man was charged with criminal solicitation to commit criminal homicide and sent back to the county correctional facility for lack of $100,000 bail.
The district attorney said the girl and her mother were told about the plot. The girl and her mother were not harmed.
“(He) was looking for a way to get these (rape) charges dismissed,” the district attorney said. “Protecting the victim is our utmost concern.”
The man has been in jail since his January arrest on allegations he raped the girl multiple times, arrest papers say.
According to the criminal complaint filed:
He told a fellow inmate, 42, that he was worried about the rape charges against him. He told the inmate that he wanted to scare the girl and her mother so they wouldn’t testify, and offered the man a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette to “beat them up.”
In her testimony at a preliminary hearing, the 12-year-old girl said she was afraid to tell anyone that the man was sexually assaulting her because he was abusive when drunk.
Rape and related charges against the man were forwarded to trial in county court.
Several days after the preliminary hearing, the man told another inmate, 20, that he didn’t want to go to state prison.
The man offered to get someone to post $1,300 bail in order for the 20-year-old to get released from jail.
The man told the 20-year-old the girl’s name, described her appearance, where she lived, and gave instructions to “kill” the girl and to make it look like an accidental drug overdose, the criminal complaint says.
Police said the man offered to pay $5,000 after the girl was dead, and said the money could be picked up from a residence.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled. |
