Prosecutor: Woman sought hit man to kill relative, collect $40K life insurance

Published 4:29 pm Tuesday, February 20, 2018

JACKSON (AP) — A federal prosecutor says a 32-year-old Mississippi woman has admitted trying to hire a hit man to kill her half-brother so she could collect $40,000 in life insurance.

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Hurst Jr. says in a news release that Velma White of Jackson pleaded guilty Tuesday to four counts of using a communications facility to carry out murder for hire.

He says her half-brother’s policy was for $50,000, and she offered $10,000 to a supposed hit man who was really an undercover agent.

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Hurst and an official from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say White had many chances to back out but “only affirmed her commitment to the murder scheme.”

Sentencing is scheduled May 21. White could get up to 40 years in prison and $1 million in fines.