It was just up the road in Brownwood, Texas. Jeffrey Dwayne Harrison, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release, had a drug trial pending in Brown County District Judge Stephen Ellis's court. And the tactic he came up with to beat the case was to hire a hit man to rub out the judge, apparently assuming that a new judge would make a difference in his case.
The cops got a tip from a CI in March about what Mr. Harrison wanted to do, so an ATF agent went undercover and played the role of an Aryan gang member ready to do the deed for ten grand.
Mr. Harrison and the agent had a few telephone conversations, and the agent visited him in the county jail, all the while pretending to be a hit man as they made the deadly deal.
Then in one final display of theatrical talent, the agent was brought in handcuffs into the same interview room as Harrison as if he had just been arrested. Here's how that went down, according to the news release:
When the two were alone, the undercover agent asked Harrison, “did you drop the dime on me?” Harrison responded that he hadn’t and the undercover agent replied that someone had because he was caught an hour outside of town and that they’d found the body. Harrison repeated that he hadn’t said anything.
Mr. Harrison was read his rights, made a few more incriminating statements, and on June 10 he made a guilty plea in federal court to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Links: U.S. Attorney's news release and GoSanAngelo.com.
Dang, George ... shades of Charles Harrelson, from the late 70s!
Posted by: Jeff | June 17, 2010 at 04:40 PM
By golly, I had forgotten about that. Thanks Jeff!
Posted by: Geo | June 17, 2010 at 05:09 PM