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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maya Yang

Florida mother arrested over allegedly trying to hire hitman to kill son, three

Miami-Dade police arrested Jazmin Paez for trying to hire a hitman to kill her three-year-old son.
Miami-Dade police arrested Jazmin Paez for trying to hire a hitman to kill her three-year-old son. Photograph: Michele Eve Sandberg/Shutterstock

The spoof website Rentahitman.com has caught another seemingly genuine customer, this time a Florida mother allegedly plotting to kill her three-year old son.

Last month, Miami-Dade police arrested 18-year old Jazmin Paez after she filled out a request form on the parody website – which she thought was real – to have her son killed, according to arrest documents reviewed by local TV station NBC 6.

Paez had allegedly requested for a hitman to kill her son by the end of the week, NBC 6 reported. Speaking to the outlet, Rentahitman.com’s owner Robert Innes said he receives hundreds of requests daily, many of them fake. However, Paez’s requests appeared oddly specific, allegedly including pictures of the child as well as the exact location of where he was going to be on the desired day.

According to the arrest documents, Paez allegedly also offered $3,000. NBC 6 reported that Paez also allegedly wrote that she wanted “to get something done once and for all” and that she wanted her son “to be taken away, far, far, far away and possibly be killed by ASAP”.

Paez also reportedly used a fake name and indicated her safe word as “Put me in, coach,” WPLG reported.

“The ability to research names and addresses and verify the intended target lived in a particular address. That to me is a red flag. If that information is corroborated, to me that is something that needs to be looked at and that’s why I referred it [to authorities],” Innes told NBC 6.

On 18 July, Paez was arrested and charged with soliciting murder and unlawful use of a communications device. She was granted a $15,000 bond and was released from jail with orders to stay away from her son.

Speaking to NBC 6, Paez’s father said his daughter has had a history of medical complications. “My daughter is not a monster … My daughter is a little girl who was born with health problems.” he said.

On Monday, authorities made a second arrest in the case as they charged 18-year-old Gamaliel Soza with first-degree conspiracy to commit murder.

According to NBC 6 which reviewed Soza’s arrest report, authorities discovered text messages in which Soza allegedly encouraged Paez to kill her son.

“The kid is the problem, I hope you see that all I ever wanted was to free you. I told you about the kid, you won’t do anything,” Soza appeared to say in one of the text messages.

“You do it and I’ll think about coming back,” another text message read.

Soza was granted a $15,000 bond and was ordered to stay away from the child and not contact anyone under 18 years of age without supervision, NBC6 reported.

In April, federal authorities arrested a Tennessee air national guardsman after he allegedly responded to an online ad through the same spoof website and sent multiple follow-up emails about his hitman candidacy.

Two months later, authorities arrested a 17-year-old girl in Iowa in a separate case after she allegedly tried to hire a hitman from the same website to kill a seven-year-old child.

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