An inmate offered up to $10,000 to “get somebody to take out” his ex-wife, a Cobb County resident, the FBI said in court documents.
Michael Lawrence Dane McEarchern, who now is in federal custody, paid an $800 deposit to an undercover FBI agent as part of the proposed deal, FBI Special Agent Mitchell Jackson said in the documents.
McEarchern, 29, of Temple, was jailed in Bartow County on drug and firearms charges when he sought someone to kill his wife Nov. 6, officials said. The FBI learned of the situation from an informant.
Posing as a potential hitman, an agent contacted McEarchern, who identified his ex-wife, passed along her address in Smyrna and said he would send the deposit to a post office box, the FBI said. An agent recovered the money on Nov. 30, according to the documents.
McEarchern also allegedly wanted his former wife’s boyfriend killed and gave the agent the boyfriend’s place of work, which is in Cobb.
Smyrna police told the FBI the boyfriend was shot multiple times and survived.
“Evidence indicated Michael McEarchern hired someone to kill (him),” Jackson said in the documents.
It is not clear when the boyfriend was shot and who shot him. A Smyrna police spokesman declined to discuss the case.
McEarchern’s ex-wife is safe, her mother said.
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