A Utah inmate awaiting trial for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl is now accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her, according to authorities.
Kristoffer Jones, 29, was hit with extra charges for the alleged murder-for-hire plot while in jail in Hurricane awaiting trial on four counts of rape and one count of aggravated sex abuse of the teenage girl.
He “solicited several inmates to either kill or assist in coordinating the murder” of his teenage victim to stop her testifying against him, Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a statement.
“I’m facing 25 to life for rape of a child that I never committed, & I need the b—- to disappear for good,” he told one inmate, according to a probable cause statement obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
An undercover officer in the Purgatory Correctional Facility gathered evidence that Jones took “substantial steps” to have the girl killed, the sheriff’s office said.
He agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to the would-be killer within 30 days of his release, writing a note with the dollar amount “with a ‘guarantee’ on it,” police wrote in the documents.
He also “drew a map of the apartment complex and the specific building and apartment” where the 13-year-old lives, providing information about her school and parents’ schedules, the report says.
Jones finally took a video call from the undercover agent posing as the hitman — confirming he was at the girl’s apartment.
The undercover agent gave Jones “one last chance to back out,” asking “if he wanted him to follow through” — with Jones insisting, “Yes,” according to the report.
Jones now faces two counts of criminal solicitation to commit murder, first-degree felonies. Those new charges carry a possible punishment of between five years and life in prison, the Tribune noted.