A Utah inmate being held on charges of allegedly raping a 13-year-old has been charged with trying to have the girl killed in a murder-for-hire plot.
Kristoffer Jones, 29, an inmate at the Washington County jail, has been charged with three counts of criminal solicitation to commit murder, first-degree felonies. Those new charges carry a possible punishment of between five years and life in prison.
Jones has been held in the jail since March, when he was charged with four counts of rape of a child, one count of aggravated sex abuse of a child and three counts of sex abuse of a child, in a case involving a 13-year-old girl. During that time, according to police, Jones “allegedly solicited several inmates to either kill or assist in coordinating the murder of a juvenile witness/victim.”
Jones took “substantial steps from inside the correctional facility” to have the girl killed “in an effort to prevent [her] from testifying in the pending criminal case against him,” according to police.
One fellow inmate told authorities he believed Jones asked a second inmate to kill the girl; the second inmate confirmed that Jones wanted him to “get rid” of the teenager. Jones was later recorded saying he wanted the girl “gone, gone, gone.”
The second inmate, working with police, told Jones “he knew people on the outside that could help with something like this.” Jones agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to the man within 30 days of his release if he killed the girl; he wrote a note with the dollar amount “with a 'guarantee' on it,” police wrote.
According to a probable cause statement, Jones “drew a map of the apartment complex and the specific building and apartment” where the 13-year-old lives, and also provided information about “what school the victim attended and [her] parents’ work schedule.” He said the girl could be killed in a drive-by shooting, by hitting her with a car, or by injecting her with insulin.
Jones agreed to a video call with an undercover agent posing as the hit man, the probable cause statement continued. The agent spoke to Jones from in front of the teenager’s apartment, and Jones confirmed he was at the correct address. According to the statement, the undercover agent gave Jones “one last chance to back out” and asked “if he wanted him to follow through” with the killing; Jones replied, “Yes.”
According to police, they learned that Jones had “solicited another inmate” to kill the girl, offering “a written promise letter, sealed with a blood finger print” and offering to help the man “rob a bank when they were both out.” And another inmate told investigators Jones passed him a note asking "if it’s possible if you know a way to get rid of someone” because “I’m facing 25 to life for rape of a child that I never committed, & I need the b---- to disappear for good.”
