John Michael Musbach, 34, of Haddonfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in February in federal court to an indictment charging him using the internet with the intent so that a murder be committed, U.S. Attorney's Office said.
A New Jersey man was sentenced today to 78 months in prison, as well as to three years of supervised release and was fined $30,000, for paying $20,000 in Bitcoin to have a 14-year-old child murdered, U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Jersey announced.
John Michael Musbach, 34, of Haddonfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in February in federal court to an indictment charging him with one count of knowingly and intentionally using and causing another to use a facility of interstate and foreign commerce (the internet), with the intent that a murder be committed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Jersey said in a statement.
On June 27, Judge Rodriguez imposed the sentence in a federal court in Camden, New Jersey.
In the summer of 2015 the parents of the then-13-year-old victim found out about the inappropriate online exchanges between Musbach and their son, they contacted police, People reported.
Musbach was then arrested in March 2016, according to People.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that Musbach then decided to have the teen, who then was 14 years old, killed so that the victim could not testify against him in the pending criminal case.
Prosecutors said that Musbach went on a murder-for-hire website on the dark web and asked if a 14-year-old was too young of a target. When he got word that the victim’s age wasn’t an issue, he paid approximately 40 Bitcoin — the equivalent of $20,000 at the time— for the hit, according to The U.S. Attorney’s Office.
When pressed for an additional $5,000 to secure the hit, Musbach then wanted to cancel the hit and asked for a refund of his $20,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The website’s administrator then revealed that the website was a scam and threatened to reveal Musbach’s information to law enforcement, U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Rocco C. Cipparone, Musbach's lawyer, said in a statement to People after Musbach’s guilty plea that his client "decided to put this matter behind him without a trial, and accepted his responsibility."
Cipparone said in the statement to People that Musbach’s behavior was “aberrational for him.”
