A Kentucky man was sentenced to more than six years in prison for trying to arrange the murder of a 14-year-old boy to prevent the teen from testifying against him in a trial.
John Michael Musbach, 34, of Haddonfield, must also pay a $30,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey.
Musbach sought a hitman in 2016 to kill a New York boy whom he had victimized in an online child-pornography crime one year earlier, prosecutors said.
He wanted to prevent the boy from testifying at a trial for endangering the welfare of a child, authorities alleged.
Musbach paid $20,000 in bitcoin to the operator of a website that offered murder-for-hire services, but the purported “hitman” simply kept the money and did nothing to the boy.
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According to a criminal complaint, Musbach made the payment after the website’s administrator told him a 14-year-old was not too young to be killed.
When Musbach eventually requested a refund, the complaint says, the “hitman” disclosed his business was a scam. The website administrator then demanded $10,000 to refrain from reporting Musbach to law enforcement.
The complaint does not say whether Musbach paid the additional amount.
Musbach was arrested for the hitman scheme in 2019 after authorities heard from a hacker who had accessed the murder-for-hire website.
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A guilty plea
Musbach pleaded guilty in February to using the internet with the intent that a murder be committed,
U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez also ordered Musbach to pay a fine of $30,000 at a June 27 hearing in Camden federal court.
He also is to serve three years on supervised release.