NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Two men are charged in a murder-for-hire scheme that authorities say started in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Authorities say an inmate there tried to hire someone to kill his ex-girlfriend.
The district attorney’s office says officials at the jail uncovered the plot while investigating misuse of the inmate phone system by 22-year-old inmate Zunir Wilson-Walker.
Wilson-Walker was awaiting trial on burglary charges when, authorities say, he lost phone privileges for violating a protection from abuse order by threatening his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his child. He then sent harassing and threatening messages to her using his inmate-issue computer tablet, resulting in suspension of tablet privileges.
When officials at the prison found out he was using another inmate's phone account, they started reviewing recorded phone calls. They found one from Nov. 9 in which Wilson-Walker told 20-year-old Jadan Jones of Norristown to create an Instagram account and post a story there offering $15,000, a Cartier watch, and a car as payment for someone to beat and kill his ex-girlfriend.
Detectives say, in another call later that same day, Wilson-Walker gave Jones the handle he wanted him to use for the account: “walkdownmontt.”
Ten minutes later, Jones created the account, detectives say, and just a couple of hours later, he posted eight stories on that Instagram account with the woman’s name, her location, a description of her car, and where she would be at a certain time.
They say Wilson-Walker told Jones to post a story rather than a regular post to avoid drawing Instagram’s attention, because a story is visible for only 24 hours.
The two are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, criminal solicitation of murder and criminal use of a communications facility. Wilson-Walker is also charged with terroristic threats, stalking, assault, strangulation and other offenses.
Both men are held at Montgomery County Correctional Facility—Wilson-Walker, on $500,077 cash bail; Jones, on $99,000 cash bail. Preliminary hearings for both men, before separate judges, are set for Feb. 11.