Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Woman Uses Spyware to Track Boyfriend So She Can Have a Hitman Kill Him

January 15, 2018

Yes, it sounds like a bad TV episode idea. But no, I am not kidding. Naked Security reported on January 9 that Rasheeda Johnson Turner, a California resident, was arrested in December on federal charges that she hired a hitman (who turned out to be an FBI informant – doh) to kill her boyfriend, who was dumb enough to tell her than he had named her as his beneficiary on a $150,000 life insurance policy.

Ms. Turner goes by the handle "Mz. Feisty" on social media. The boyfriend was identified in court documents as L.G.

Turner allegedly told the informant she was the beneficiary of the $150,000 life insurance policy and that she would pay the killer $50,000. Over the course of two weeks, she allegedly told the purported hitman that she originally planned to do the deed herself and had sourced "pure acid" from a plumber to get it done.

According to the criminal complaint, Turner initially tried to hire a hitman in November, but he said no. The FBI learned of the alleged plot and got an informant introduced to Turner. Turner is, according to her social media posts, an amateur film star with a rap sheet: She was convicted in 2005 for forgery and theft and arrested in 2016 for spousal battery, having allegedly assaulted L.G. This was clearly not a "Romeo and Juliet" romance.

The informant met Turner in December, wired of course, where she outlined the entire ghoulish plan. To add to the non-traditional romance story, Turner was worried that her boyfriend was getting close to another woman and she might lose her beneficiary status. Charming. So she was in something of a hurry.

She knew enough to tell the "hitman" to make her boyfriend's phone disappear because they had been texting back and forth. She showed him a photo of L.G. and showed him a tracking app on her phone that allowed her to locate L.G. on a map, useful in this case because L.G. had various places where he slept in his Lexus at night – no explanation given on why he was sleeping in his car, but undoubtedly an interesting side story.

On December 7, Turner was ready for the murder to take place, texting the fake hitman with the words "That fly needs to be swatted." You can't make this stuff up. Telling him about the woman getting close to L.G., she gave further evidence of her character by telling the "hitman", "I'm like, oh no, we gotta get it done ASAP so we can still get that f**kin' money."

She instructed the informant to let her know when the deed was done by using the code "Operation Dumbo." After she got that code, she'd remove the tracking app from her phone, she said.

Turner allegedly said she'd pay the informant part of the money upfront – as soon as she got it from a credit card scam. That fits right in, yes?

How did she get so good at getting away with murder? TV, she allegedly told the informant. "You gotta beat them at they own game. I watch all that killer shows, so it tells you how to get away with sh*t. It tells you what to do."

Our "good at getting away with murder" suspect was arrested on December 13 and charged with murder-for-hire. She was arraigned and is now awaiting trial. She is likely to wish that everyone's phone had vanished when she sees the text message evidence.

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