Court: Dark Web Bitcoin Murder-For-Hire Suspect Remains Under GPS Monitoring

A DuPage County, Illinois judge has ruled that a woman charged with paying $10,000 in bitcoin for a Dark Web hitman to have her former lover’s wife killed must continue wearing a GPS monitoring device as the case goes on. 32 year-old Tina Jones of Des Plaines, Illinois has been arraigned on four counts of solicitation of murder for hire, two counts of solicitation of murder and attempted first-degree murder after authorities were alerted about a contract denominated in bitcoin which was placed on the unnamed woman’s life.

Earlier in the year, she was given the GPS monitor as part of her bail conditions – a condition which her lawyer says is now financially unbearable because of the $10 per day fee associated with it. To date he says, Jones has paid more than $2,390 since she was granted bail on April 23. If convicted on the Class X felonies, she faces up to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the application, Jones’ lawyer said:

Ms. Jones would otherwise request that all other conditions of bond remain in effect, including that she be required to stay within the state of Georgia unless traveling to Illinois for court, and then she may only stay within Illinois for 24 hours. This court can be fairly assured of Ms. Jones continued compliance because of the support of her family (who travel with her to every court appearance), her performance while on release thus far, and other factors to be discussed with this court.

The judge however turned down the request, stating instead that the clerk’s office should deduct the GPS monitoring fee from the $25,000 bail she posted for the duration of the bail program.

Case Background

The case against Jones started out as an investigation by CBS program “48 hours” into a purported illegal service platform on the internet called ‘The Cosa Nostra International Network.’ While the platform itself turned out to be little more than a scam website harvesting cryptocurrency from inexperienced wannabe criminal masterminds, the investigating team noticed a contract on the website for the murder of a clinical social worker in Naperville.

The police were alerted immediately and Jones was arrested shortly thereafter on suspicion of solicitation of murder. According to police, Jones who is scheduled to appear in court on February 13 provided the purported hitman with a clear blueprint for eliminating her love rival including her lover’s work schedule and instructions to make the murder look like an accident.

In April, Jones was granted bail and allowed to live with her parents in Georgia.

Featured image from Shutterstock. Mugshot credit DuPage County State’s Attorney.

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