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ST. GEORGE — A southern Utah man was sentenced in federal court after admittedly using the internet to solicit a contract killing of two individuals in New York. That scheme, however, was intercepted by FBI agents before any harm came to the intended targets.
U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd sentenced 43-year-old Christopher Pence, of Cedar City, on one count of the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot — a charge the defendant pleaded guilty to in December. Pence was ordered to serve 84 months in federal prison, followed by three years post-prison supervision upon his release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of New York.
As part of his guilty plea, Pence admitted that in July of 2021, he accessed a dark net website from his computer in Cedar City and arranged for the murder of two residents of Hoosick Falls, in eastern New York. He also admitted to paying a website administrator approximately $16,000-worth of Bitcoin to have the pair killed.
Read more at St. George News.
