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Bitcoin is now used by bad people to satisfy their hatred.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a Mississippi woman has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for her role in a botched murder-for-hire plot.
Forty years old Jessica Leeann Sledge pleaded guilty in February to hiring an alleged assassin on the dark web and paying him in Bitcoin to kill her now-ex-husband in Mississippi.
U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves sentenced Sledge to 120 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $1,000 fine.
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Sledge declined to speak at her sentencing, allowing her written statement in court to stand and let her attorney speak on her behalf.
John M. Colette, her defense attorney, said his client was a “first-time offender” with “zero likelihood of recidivism.” He asked the court to consider a prison sentence of about five years.
Pelahatchie Woman Pleads Guilty In Murder-For-Hire Case: Jessica Leeann Sledge of Pelahatchie pleaded guilty to using interstate commercial facilities to commit a murder-for-hire. https://t.co/yBTShaqlhv
— FBI Jackson (@FBIJackson) February 9, 2022
Sledge admitted in court that between September and November last year, she contacted a killer via Whatsapp in an attempt to make her husband disappear.
Oops: The supposed “killer” turns out to be an FBI agent
A special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to prosecutors, was the “hit man” who paid to carry out the murder.
She scheduled a face-to-face meeting with the “killer” on November 1, 2021, in Brandon, Mississippi, to deliver an additional payment and details about her intended target.
Bitcoin payments totaling approximately $10,000 were made by Sledge to kill “Victim 1” on October 4, October 9, and October 10, 2021, according to the author
Between October 22 and 26, Sledge provided the FBI agent with specific details about her husband. According to court documents, this contained various images of her husband as well as photos of the cars he usually drove, including license plate numbers.
Investigations showed 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
This isn’t 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 hit man to kill his ex-girlfriend after she wanted to end their brief relationship.
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 also pleaded guilty to federal charges that she hired a hitman in March of this year to kill her ex-husband using cryptocurrency.
The Justice Department said Kristy Lynn Felkins, 37, faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to using interstate commercial facilities to commit the murder-for-hire plot.
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