Augusta Resident Enters Plea to Murder-for-Hire

MARTINSBURG, WV—A 50-year-old Augusta, West Virginia woman, entered a plea of guilty on January 11, 2012, in United States District Court in Martinsburg before Magistrate Judge David J. Joel.

United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II, announced that: BRENDA LEE SWISHER entered a plea of guilty to one count of an Indictment charging her with causing an individual to travel in interstate commerce from the state of Virginia to Hampshire County to commit a murder-for-hire for $3,500. SWISHER, who is free on bond pending sentencing, faces a maximum exposure of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas O. Mucklow and was investigated by the Potomac Highlands Drug & Violent Crime Task Force, consisting of officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, West Virginia State Police-Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and Mineral County Sheriff’s Department; the Eastern Panhandle Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, consisting of officers from the West Virginia State Police-Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Martinsburg Police Department, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department, and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department; and uniformed officers of the West Virginia State Police.