A jealous boss who offered his employee $2,000, a pickup truck, and a raise to kill his lover's ex-husband narrowly avoided the death penalty for his murder-for-hire plot.
Freddy Gonzalez, 40, from Simpson County, Kentucky, was seeing Miranda Russell in 2020 until she left him to rekindle her relationship with her ex-husband, Brian, 43.
Gonzalez took matters into his own hands and offered his employee, Xavier Posey, $2,000, a pickup truck, a pay raise at his restaurant job and a gun to kill Russell's ex-husband, according to Bowling Green Daily News.
Court filings obtained by BG Daily News revealed Gonzalez, a former member of the U.S. Army National Guard, then test drove a truck at a used car lot and made a copy of the key, which he gave to Posey to carry out the murder. Posey then drove to Brian's house, shot and killed him.
Although a grand jury initially indicted Gonzalez and Posey on a murder for hire charge, which has a mandatory life sentence and is eligible for the death penalty, the U.S. Department of Justice chose not to seek the death penalty, BG Daily News reported.
On Tuesday, Gonzalez was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
He read a statement to his and the victim's family following his sentencing.
"To Brian's family, I am ashamed to no end at the pain and suffering I put you in because of my jealousy and desperation," Gonzalez said in court. "I have to live with the hurt I caused and the decisions I made. To my family, I'm sorry I let you all down and disgraced the family's name ... I am truly and deeply sorry for the hurt I caused you and your families."
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