Murder For Hire

An apparent murder-for-hire scheme was foiled this week when a 58-year-old ex-con from Costa Mesa was arrested near Santa Cruz with a gun and the address of the intended victim, police said Thursday. Patrick Michael O'Neill was being held Thursday in the Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a felon after officers, working on an anonymous tip, followed him to Capitola and watched as he checked out his victim's apartment building, officials said.

A former IRS agent who opened a tax preparation business was sentenced Friday to nearly 24 years in prison for defrauding clients out of more than $11 million and then attempting to hire a hit man to kill four of them. Steven Martinez, 51, of Ramona was sentenced in San Diego federal court to 286 months in prison and five years of supervised release.  He was also ordered by District Court Judge William Hayes to forfeit all the property, including a home in Mexico, and other possessions that he purchased with clients' money.

A former Santa Ana tow-truck driver was sentenced Friday to life in prison without possibility of parole for bludgeoning a Buena Park nurse in exchange for a $15,000 bounty offered by her ex-husband. Neill F. Matzen, 39, was convicted of first-degree murder in the November, 1990, slaying of Donna Jean Connaty, 34. Matzen continued to proclaim his innocence Friday in a brief statement to the court. "I am sorry there has been a death in this case, but it wasn't me. I didn't kill her," Matzen said.

Pruning shears. A wrong turn toward Canada. Chinese gangs. Code words for torture and murder. And a prison mastermind with a fetish for paisley ties and a tattoo of Justin Bieber on his leg. The New Mexico State Police headquarters was crushed by media calls Thursday seeking information about a report that superstar Bieber was the target of a prison-hatched murder-for-hire scheme. "This is crazy!" a police receptionist said over the phone, in disbelief at the attention. DOCUMENTS: Affidavit for arrest warrant First, neither Bieber nor anyone else was harmed.

At first, the murder seemed to have all the markings of an attempted carjacking. When Los Angeles police officers reached the scene on the dark Boyle Heights street July 26, they found affluent software designer Bruce Cleland lying in a pool of blood across the street from his new black 4Runner. His distraught wife, Rebecca, said she had been knocked unconscious when she got out of the vehicle to check the tailgate and awoke to the gruesome sight.

The husband of a DuPont family heiress was sentenced Thursday to more than 16 years in prison for his role in the contract killing of a former prostitute who became a family nemesis. "To this day, I don't know why I did what I did," Christopher Moseley told U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush. "But I do know Patricia Margello is dead, and I'm responsible for that." Moseley and three others were charged in the Aug. 2, 1998 death of Margello in a seedy motel near the Las Vegas Strip.

James Newman Hood sits in a quaint, ornate courtroom, rocking slowly in his wooden chair, as lawyers and witnesses chart his descent from the golden existence and happy family life he once knew to the prospect of financial ruin and a life behind bars.

The way detectives see it, Dr. Kenneth C. Stahl was a man who became snared in a deadly double-double cross. For months, they said, he had meticulously planned the murder of his wife. He left no detail to chance, from the romantic dinner to the impromptu ride later that night along a remote stretch of Ortega Highway, where two hired killers were supposed to meet the couple and carry out the hit. But something went wrong.

Juan Carlos CruzSanta Monica police credited the department's strong relationship with the city's homeless population with helping crack an alleged murder-for-hire scheme involving a onetime Food Network chef and cookbook author. Juan-Carlos Cruz, former host of "Calorie Commando," was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder, Sgt. Jay Trisler. told The Times. Police said Cruz allegedly approached people on the streets a week earlier and asked them to kill someone for him. At least one of the homeless individuals contacted police and, with that assistance, investigators were able to learn details of the alleged solicitation, including how, where and when the target was to be killed, authorities said.

A judge sentenced a 67-year-old man to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday for masterminding the murder for hire of his estranged wife, a killing that took place as police were outside her Long Beach home investigating a reported prowler. Manfred Schockner was found guilty Sept. 7 of first-degree murder in the Nov. 8, 2004, stabbing death of his estranged wife, Lynn, at the home they once shared in the Bixby Knolls area.

SEATTLE -- They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Coda: If you scorned a woman's daughter, the fury gets ratcheted up a notch. Thus unfolds the tale in western Washington state of Jacqueline Ray, 49, and her dead son-in-law. Ray, a resident of the quaint community of Gig Harbor, has been charged with first-degree murder in an alleged murder-for-hire plot in July. Ray's daughter had apparently fled to a motel with her children to escape from her husband, who Ray said had repeatedly beaten her. Also arrested and charged was Luis Rea Barker.

A convicted killer who died on death row while his appeal languished before the California Supreme Court should have his case decided posthumously, his attorney told the state high court. Scott F. Kauffman, who represented Dennis Lawley for 19 years, contends that his client was innocent of a 1989 murder for hire that sent him to San Quentin. Lawley, he said, deserves a ruling on his claims, even if the outcome will have no practical consequence. "Mr. Lawley's death does not erase the injustice of his conviction and sentence," Kauffman told the court in a written motion.

Six men, including a former soldier, have been arrested in the border town of Laredo, Texas, in connection with drug trafficking and an alleged murder-for-hire plot, according to federal officials. The arrests culminate a months-long federal sting operation in which the suspects allegedy helped hatch a plan to purchase weapons for drug cartel members in exchange for money and drugs. Kevin Corley, 29, and Samuel Walker, 28, both of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Shavar Davis, 29, of Denver were arrested over the weekend in Laredo,  according to a statement released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Eugene Temkin had a job he wanted done, and he knew precisely how he wanted it. The intended victims, including a former business associate with whom he'd had a nasty court fight, were to be hogtied and raped. They were to be tortured and forced to send $15 million to Temkin's off-shore bank account in Uruguay. They were then to be killed at their vacation home in Spain. That's what Temkin told a hit man he hired for the job and paid $3,000 as down payment. But that killer, whom Temkin knew as "Pavel," was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

Not so long ago, Juan-Carlos Cruz was an anonymous young chef just getting started in a culinary arts career. But in less than a decade, he went from being a chubby sous chef in a hotel to a trim and handsome television chef and cookbook author, who taught classes on preparing low-calorie meals. Today, he sits in a Los Angeles County jail cell, booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder, his bail set at $5 million. Santa Monica police say Cruz, 48, of Westwood, asked homeless men to commit homicide for him. After one of the homeless men told police, investigators launched a weeklong undercover operation that ended with Cruz's arrest in a Cheviot Hills dog park on Thursday.

Juan Carlos CruzSanta Monica police credited the department's strong relationship with the city's homeless population with helping crack an alleged murder-for-hire scheme involving a onetime Food Network chef and cookbook author. Juan-Carlos Cruz, former host of "Calorie Commando," was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder, Sgt. Jay Trisler. told The Times. Police said Cruz allegedly approached people on the streets a week earlier and asked them to kill someone for him. At least one of the homeless individuals contacted police and, with that assistance, investigators were able to learn details of the alleged solicitation, including how, where and when the target was to be killed, authorities said.

Lawyers for three people accused of a 1989 murder-for-hire plot each sought, in closing arguments Monday, to shift responsibility to others for the death of a retired Mission Viejo stockbroker. But Deputy Dist. Atty. David L. Brent told jurors that the killing of 72-year-old David Werner--who was smothered, beaten and stabbed in his bed--was the work of people who were "sick, (with) a complete, callous disregard for human life and its consequences. These were people . . . who had black hearts."

A Sherman Oaks man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to a bank fraud charge has admitted to federal authorities that he sought to have a witness in the case killed in a drive-by shooting, officials said Wednesday. Pavel Valkovich, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of solicitation of murder for offering to pay $10,000 to arrange for the slaying of a man who was cooperating with authorities in the fraud case against him. Valkovich was involved in a scheme in which he and others used stolen personal identifying information to transfer funds from victims' bank accounts to PayPal accounts he and his cohorts could access, prosecutors contend.

Three teenagers, including a U.S. soldier, have been charged with capital murder for their roles in the contract killing of a Mexican drug cartel lieutenant who was cooperating with U.S. authorities, police said Wednesday. Army Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, and Christopher Duran, 17, were arrested Monday. A 16-year-old boy, whom police did not identify because of his age, was arrested Wednesday. Investigators said Apodaca, an El Paso native who joined the Army last year, admitted taking money from a mid-level cartel official to be the triggerman.