A Georgia jail inmate is accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife for up to $10,000 in cash and Atlanta Hawks Tickets, according to Crime Online.
Michael Lawrence Dane McEarchern, 29, of Temple, is facing a murder charge at the U.S. District Court in Rome. The suspect hasn’t been indicted and is currently held without bond, according to Rome News-Tribune.
An informant contacted the FBI in early November to say that McEarchern was looking to “get somebody to take out his wife for $5,000 to $10,000.”
McEarchern was already in jail at the time on charges of firearms and drug charges. An FBI agent posed as a hitman and contacted McEarchern at the jail. The suspect gave the supposed hitman his wife’s identity and address. He then agreed to send an $800 deposit to a post office box, according to a narrative by FBI Special Agent Mitchell Jackson.
McEarchern also told the undercover agent that he wanted his ex-wife’s boyfriend killed as well and provided the man’s place of work.
The FBI then contacted local police in Smyrna, Georgia, and inquired about the boyfriend. They found out that he has already been shot several times but survived.
“Evidence indicated Michael McEarchern hired someone to kill (him),” Jackson wrote.
An FBI agent went to the post office box on Nov. 30 and picked up the $800 that McEarchern sent. The return address on the check was tracked to a hotel on Windy Hill Road. McEarchern’s girlfriend worked as a bartender there.
Agents reviewed the calls between the suspect and his girlfriend and found one where McEarchern told her to the specific address to mail the check to. He also asked her to confirm when the money was sent.
Also on Nov. 30, FBI agents placed a recorder inside McEarchern’s cell. In the recorded call, he gave the undercover agent specific places and times his wife can be found. He aslo said he didn’t care how she was killed as “long as it happens this time.”
U.S. marshals took custody of McEarchern on Dec. 5. His wife is unharmed according to Crime Online.
Smyrna is a small city northwest of Atlanta.
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