Federal Inmate Gets 21 Years for Hitman Plan to Kill U.S. Attorney and Informant
A Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmate has been sentenced to additional time for a murder-for-hire plot against an Assistant United States Attorney and confidential informant.
On Wednesday, Acting United States Attorney M. Rhett DeHart announced that Richard Robert Gilbert, a BOP inmate, will serve 21 years in federal prison for planning to hire a hitman to murder the U.S. attorney and informant.
Gilbert, 52, was already serving 130 months in federal prison for trafficking methamphetamine in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2017. While incarcerated at FCI Edgefield, Gilbert used a contraband cell phone to coordinate the murders of the prosecutor and witness from his drug trafficking case.
Gilbert spoke with an undercover task force officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was posing as a hitman for hire. Court records obtained numerous recorded phone calls which revealed that Gilbert sent the undercover officer a $2000 check from his prison account as a down payment for the murders.
Gilbert attempted to mislead BOP officers by covering up the details of the check. He stated that the payment was for an "investment firm," according to court documents.
Evidence also showed that Gilbert drew various maps of where he believed the witness in the Kentucky case lived. He gave specific directions to the undercover officer on how to avoid surveillance cameras that were located on the property and planned to use additional income from various properties to pay for the coordination of the retaliation murders. He planned to use his income from other pieces of land to pay for the murder of the attorney.
In January, a federal judge accepted a guilty plea from Gilbert which stated that he would serve 262 months in prison, concurrent to the 130-month prison sentence he's serving.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office will continue to hold accountable those who seek violent retribution against law enforcement officers and those who assist the U.S. government," said U.S. Attorney McCoy. "We stand united with our law enforcement partners. We are undeterred by bad actors and will ensure the rule of law is upheld."
Gilbert was represented by public defender Eric Soderdahl and the Federal Public Defender District of South Carolina, according to U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Michael Mule.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Services Team, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Holloway and Will Jordan.
