PHOENIX — A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 8.5 years in prison after he offered $3,000 for someone to dress up as a "homeless person" and murder the mother of his children.
Ali Joseph, 44, was sentenced this week in court after he pleaded guilty to being involving in a murder-for-hire plot, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Arizona.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Un hombre de Phoenix fue sentenciado por ofrecer $3,000 para que un sicario asesinara a su expareja
Court records show Joseph spent over a month planning the crime with an undercover FBI employee who he thought was a "hitman." Joseph felt his ex had become an "apostate" and he didn't want her raising his children.
The defendant asked for the hitman to disguise themselves as a homeless person and stab the victim in the neck.
"Defendant never expressed any real hesitation at the thought of killing (the target); if anything, he became more determined to increase the lethality of the hit as time went on," prosecutors wrote in court records.
Joseph's legal counsel pointed blame at an FBI informant who forged a friendship with the defendant over the course of several months. The defense counsel argued the informant took advantage of Joseph's trust, equating them to becoming a "devil on his shoulder."
"The informant told countless lies during the fake friendship the FBI drummed up, all meant to put Mr. Joseph at ease and incriminate himself," Joseph's counsel wrote in court filings.
The informant introduced Joseph to the undercover person who would become involved in the murder plot.
Joseph's legal counsel claim the defendant "genuinely regrets" his involvement in the "absurd plan" and admitted that "it was a shameful act."
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