TAMPA, Fla — A Tampa accountant was arrested this week in what prosecutors described as a murder-for-hire plot.
DeAnna Marie Stinson, 50, was charged Wednesday with soliciting a crime of violence and murder-for-hire. If convicted, she faces up to a decade in federal prison.
Prosecutors say Stinson used the dark web to ask a hitman to kill the spouse of her former lover. According to a criminal complaint, she specifically asked the murder not to be "at the home" but wrote that "any place else is fine."
"Between June and July 2021, Stinson sent four additional orders and over $12,000 in Bitcoin to effect the hit," wrote the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Investigators say she offered a "bonus" to try to get the murder done faster. In the end, the murder never happened.
In a recorded phone call, prosecutors say Stinson agreed to send money to an undercover agent posing as a hitman. On Sept. 13, investigators say she sent $350 in Bitcoin that she hoped the supposed hitman would use to buy a revolver.
The FBI spearheaded the investigation into the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa M. Thelwell.
