An inmate who allegedly offered thousands of dollars and tickets to an Atlanta Hawks game for someone to kill his ex-wife was indicted.
Michael McEarchern has been arraigned, Department of Justice spokesman Bob Page confirmed Monday in a news release.
The 26-year-old Acworth man was in the Bartow County jail on drug charges when he tried to make a murder-for-hire deal Nov. 6, Page said.
While in jail, McEarchern reached out to several people trying to find someone who could arrange for the murder of his ex-wife, who lived in Cobb County. One person told a friend of McEarchern’s desire, and that person reported the crime to the FBI. To ensure that McEarchern was serious, the FBI waited for him to reach out to the informant, which he did, Page said.
McEarchern, who now is in federal custody, paid an $800 deposit to an undercover FBI agent as part of the proposed deal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Jail recordings captured McEarchern giving out information for money to be mailed. The FBI retrieved an envelope containing the $800 with a return address of the person who sent the money on McEarchern’s instruction, Page said.
McEarchern then said where the assassin could find his ex-wife, Page said.
“By providing an address and up-front money for the would-be assassin, McEarchern left little doubt that if the threat had not been discovered he may have found someone to carry out the heinous deed,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said.
The case remains under investigation by the FBI and the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office.
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