Kristy Lynn Felkins shelled out $5,000 in bitcoin to have her husband shot in his car
The US District Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of California has revealed in a press release that a 36-year-old Nevada resident, named Kristy Lynn Felkins, has been indicted for allegedly trying to pay a hitman $5,000 in bitcoin (around 12 BTC) to murder her ex-husband.
Court documents show that Felkins contracted the services of a hitman through a website on the darknet in 2016. The criminal complaint filed by the DA’s office in the same year detailed how Felkins reached out to the admin of a now-defunct darknet website. The site claimed to offer illegal services such as assault, kidnapping, and murder for hire in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency. The administrator of the website informed Felkins that the order to kill her ex-husband would cost 12 BTC.
The Northern California Illicit Digital Economy Task Force (NCIDE) managed to access chat records that show Felkins speaking extensively with the admin, while she hid under the pseudonym “KBGMKN.” The admin advised her to procure the bitcoin from LocalBitcoins, and explained the concept of coin mixing to Felkins so as to hide the transaction and throw off any potential law enforcement investigations.
LocalBitcoins (LBC) is a website that was founded in 2012. Based in Helsinki, Finland, it allows P2P Bitcoin trades through a variety of in-person and online means.
The chat records also indicated that Gabriel Scott, Felkin’s ex-husband, was expected to go on a trip to Chico, California at this time. This was when the hitman was supposed to execute the operation and “make it look like a mugging”.
While Felkins and the administrator spoke extensively on the matter, her efforts were wasted because the whole operation turned out to be a scam. The site advertised these illicit services without actually carrying it out and the criminal complaint revealed further that Felkins attempted to obtain a refund when the hitman did not shoot her husband in his car as she instructed.
“If you guys can’t do as promised then it’s time for me to stop wasting my time [sic], get a refund and figure out another solution,” she replied in frustration.
If Felkins is convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison.
The NCIDE is a task force that is focused on targeting all forms of criminal activity that is related to cryptocurrency and the dark web in the Eastern District of California.