The United States Attorney’s Office for
the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 63-year-old Florida
resident was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Scranton on charges of
conspiracy to use a facility of interstate commerce to commit a
murder-for-hire; solicitation to commit a crime of violence; and possessing and
carrying a firearm in connection to a crime of violence.
According to United States Attorney
Peter J. Smith, the grand jury alleges that Edward McLaughlin, a resident of
Cape Coral, Florida, conspired with another person to kill McLaughlin’s ex-wife
in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The indictment alleges that McLaughlin
in 2011 and 2012 solicited another person to kill his ex-wife and shipped a
Mauser rifle from Florida to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a co-conspirator to use
to commit the murder. The indictment alleges that McLaughlin communicated with
his co-conspirator by letters and telephone calls.
The charges against McLaughlin resulted
from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Scranton
Police Department. McLaughlin was apprehended by federal agents in Cape Coral,
Florida, on June 21, 2012.
McLaughlin faces a mandatory minimum
sentence of five years in prison and up to life in prison if he is convicted of
using a firearm in connection to a crime of violence; up to 20 years in prison
if convicted of solicitation to commit murder; and up to 10 years in prison if
convicted of the murder-for-hire scheme.
The case is being prosecuted by
Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.
****
An indictment and criminal information
is not evidence of guilt but simply a description of the charge made by the
United States Attorney against a defendant. A charged defendant is presumed
innocent until a jury returns a unanimous finding that the United States has
proved the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
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