Oct. 26, 2006

LAWRENCE WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY
TO TRYING TO HIRE KILLER

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Lawrence woman pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to hire a man to kill her former boyfriend.

Krista M. Harris, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of using a telephone to negotiate a murder for hire deal. She entered the plea during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson.

“An undercover agent posing as a contract killer repeatedly offered to beat up Ms. Harris’ former boyfriend instead of killing him,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren. “Ms. Harris repeatedly declined and said she wanted the man dead.”

In her plea, Harris acknowledged that investigators first learned of her plans in December 2005 when the Kansas Bureau of Investigation contacted the Lawrence Police Department. Harris had told a confidential informant working with investigators that she wanted him to kill her former boyfriend, who she said had held her at gun point while he stole narcotics and cash from her. The informant arranged for Harris to talk on the phone with an investigator who pretended to make arrangements to provide an untraceable gun to be used in the murder.

On Dec. 2, 2005, Harris was recorded on the phone arranging to meet the undercover investigator in a parking lot at the Dillon’s grocery store in Lawrence. She was to pick up the gun and to deliver a photo of the man she wanted killed. During the call, she said she and her boyfriend used to sell narcotics together but that after they had a falling out he robbed her at gun point. During the meeting at the grocery store, Harris was recorded declining the undercover investigator’s offer to beat up her former boyfriend instead of killing him. During the meeting she agreed to pay the undercover agent for the murder by giving him about $120 worth of crack cocaine. She was arrested after that meeting.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 30, 2007. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. Melgren commended the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Lawrence Police Department, which investigated the case, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Coody, who is prosecuting.

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