CARTHAGE, Ill. (AP) — A Missouri man has pleaded guilty in Illinois to trying to hire someone to kill a 4-year-old to prevent the child from testifying in court against him in a sexual abuse case.
The Quincy Herald-Whig reports that Christopher O. Brown, 27, of Revere, Missouri, entered the plea Thursday in a western Illinois court to one count of solicitation of murder for hire. Two other similar charges involving a 20-year-old woman and a 2-month-old child and two sexual abuse charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.
A Hancock County judge immediately sentenced Brown to 25 years in prison.
Court documents say Brown offered another Hancock County Jail inmate $15,000 and a $20 jail commissary to kill the 4-year-old.
The child’s grandma says the child is traumatized and needs therapy.
