John Musbach - The man who tried to hire a hitman to murder a teen in 2015 faces 10 years in jail

According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a New Jersey man who attempted to hire a hitman to kill a minor who he thought would divulge his explicit photos and videos is now facing up to 10 years in prison. Additionally, according to a statement from the DOJ, John Musbach entered a guilty plea to a murder-for-hire charge on Thursday at the U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey. He acknowledged using a website that offered to kill someone in exchange for a Bitcoin payment.

Details about the case

The victim, who was 13 years old and residing in New York at the time, and John Musbach exchanged sexually explicit pictures and videos over the summer of 2015, according to the DOJ. The teen's parents informed the local police after learning about the exchanged media. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit: New Jersey 101.5[/caption] Furthermore, in March 2016, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office (ACPO) arrested Musbach, now 31 years old, on suspicion of child pornography and carried out a search warrant at his home, which was then located in Galloway, New Jersey. According to the DOJ, Musbach made the decision to have the victim, whose name has not been made public, killed after his arrest so that they could not testify against him in his ongoing criminal case. Also read: Who is Vanroy Smith? Accountant accused of running over ER doctor with speedy Lexus before fatally stabbing him gets $1M bond The DOJ claimed that Musbach "repeatedly communicated" with the proprietor of a dark web website that offered to kill or carry out violent actions in exchange for cryptocurrencies throughout the whole month of May 2016. He also questioned whether a 14-year-old was too young to be the target and, after learning that age was irrelevant, paid about 40 bitcoin, or about $20,000 at the time, for the murder to occur. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Image credit: The New York Times[/caption] However, the DOJ claims that after being solicited for an extra $5,000 to carry out the murder-for-hire scheme and following up on the murder and when it would happen repeatedly, Musbach eventually asked for his hit to be canceled and demanded a refund of his $20,000. According to the DOJ, that's when Musbach learned that the website was a fraud and that the site's administrator threatened to give law enforcement access to Musbach's personal information.

More details

John Musbach will be sentenced on June 13 of this year, and he might spend up to 10 years in prison. In a statement to PEOPLE, Musbach's attorney, Rocco C. Cipparone, claimed that his client "decided to put this matter behind him without a trial, and accepted his responsibility."