NJ man hired hitman for $20K in Bitcoin to kill a 14-year-old

A New Jersey man who admitted to paying a hitman $20,000 in cryptocurrency to have a 14-year-old youngster murdered could withstand 10 years behind bars.

John Michael Musbach, 31, pleaded responsible to an indictment charging him with one rely of “knowingly and deliberately utilizing and inflicting one other to make use of a facility of interstate and international commerce, that’s the web, with the intent {that a} homicide be dedicated,” the Division of Justice stated Thursday.

The Haddonfield man is accused of exchanging sexually specific pictures and movies with the then-13-year-old sufferer throughout the summer season of 2015. The sufferer lived in New York on the time.

After the sufferer’s dad and mom realized of the “inappropriate contact,” they notified legislation enforcement, who recognized Musbach within the case.

In March 2016, Musbach was arrested on youngster pornography fees, the DOJ stated.

Prosecutors allege that Musbach determined to have the sufferer killed in order that the sufferer couldn’t testify towards him within the pending legal case.

Musbach repeatedly contacted the administrator of a murder-for-hire web site on the darkish internet, which purported to supply contact killings or different acts of violence in alternate for cryptocurrency, from Might 7, 2016, to Might 20, 2016.

“Musbach requested if a 14-year-old was too younger to focus on, and upon listening to that the age was not an issue, paid roughly 40 bitcoin (roughly $20,000 on the time) for the hit,” prosecutors stated.

Following his cost, Musbach repeatedly messaged the web site’s administrator to inquire about when the homicide would happen. The administrator then requested a further $5,000, which prompted Musbach to try to cancel the hit and get his $20,000 returned.

The web site’s administrator then revealed to Musbach that the operation was a sham, and threatened to show Musbach over to legislation enforcement.

Musbach faces a most potential penalty of 10 years in jail and a high quality “of the larger of $250,000, twice the gross earnings to Musbach or twice the gross losses to the sufferer of his offense.”

He’s scheduled to be sentenced on June 13.