Hired-murder plotter headed for prison
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Maryville woman has been sentenced to eight and a half years in federal prison for attempting to hire someone to kill the wife of a man she once dated.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri confirmed that Kristina Marie Swinford, 33, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Kansas City, where she pleaded guilty earlier this year to interstate solicitation of murder.
The intended victim, identified in court records as A.M., was the wife of a man with whom Swinford had a relationship while the couple was separated.
Swinford also reportedly blamed the woman for losing her job.
A person who knew Swinford contacted police last year and alleged that the woman was seeking a hit man.
Police subsequently arranged for Swinford to meet a man who said he was willing to commit the murder. However, the “hit man” was actually a federal agent.
Swinford and the agent met several times to discuss how A.M. was to be killed and to negotiate a price.
In a bizarre twist, A.M. told police she created a Facebook account under the name of another person, and that Swinford posted messages to the site about the murder-for-hire scheme.
