New Jersey Man Who Was Arrested On Child Porn Charges Allegedly Tried To Hire Hitman To Murder 14-Year-Old Child In New York
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A New Jersey man who was previously arrested on child pornography charges has been indicted after allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill a 14-year-old child in New York.
The Atlantic County prosecutor's office says 31-year-old John Michael Musbach, of Haddonfield, began communicating online with a 13-year-old in the summer of 2015.
Musbach allegedly sent the victim sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself and asked the victim for sexually explicit videos and photographs in return.
The victim's parents found the conversations with Musbach in September 2015 and notified law enforcement in the state of New York, where the victim lived.
Musbach was arrested on child pornography charges in March 2016.
Officials say he admitted he had exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with the victim and that he knew the victim was a minor.
Musbach pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child by sexual contact in 2017 and was later sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence with parole supervision for life.
According to the Atlantic County prosecutor's office, in 2019, an informant began providing law enforcement with messages between Musbach and a murder-for-hire website on the dark net.
Officials say the messages, which were from May 2016, showed that Musbach "asked if a 14-year-old was too young to target" and paid about 40 bitcoin, worth about $20,000, for the hit.
The messages allegedly show that Musbach tried to cancel the hit when he was asked for an additional $5,000, and the website's administrator told him the site was a scam and threatened to send Musbach's information to law enforcement.
Musbach has been charged with one count of murder-for-hire. He could face a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine over $250,000.
