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Background: The James T. Foley Courthouse in Albany, N.Y. (Google Maps). Inset: Jeal Sutherland (LinkedIn).
A New York man who attempted to have a romantic rival killed and his body fed to pigs pleaded guilty in federal court to the deranged plot.
A press release issued on Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York announced that Jeal Sutherland, 57, entered a guilty plea after being charged with using an interstate commerce facility in a murder-for-hire scheme. Sutherland was arrested in January following an investigation by the FBI that began when a man who eventually became an informant for the agency set fire to a car in November — reportedly because Sutherland asked him to do it.
What the informant told agents after that revealed a sickening plot that involved a love triangle, a nun, and a “good bottle of bourbon.”
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According to the criminal complaint filed at the time, the informant told authorities that Sutherland had asked him to set fire to the car, which belonged to the mother of an incarcerated man who shared a child with Sutherland’s girlfriend. The mother was scheduled to testify at a custody hearing for the child, and Sutherland sought to prevent her from attending.
The informant told agents that he’d been used as an “enforcer” by Sutherland for several vengeance-related tasks. While most of those targets were said to owe Sutherland money, the informant said that there were bigger plans for the incarcerated man.
The criminal complaint stated that Sutherland wanted the man dead upon his January release from prison. In exchange, Sutherland would forgive the informant of any debt he had. But Sutherland didn’t just want the other man dead — he wanted him gone.
Specifically, he intended to “dispose of the body at a hog farm in Pennsylvania,” according to the complaint.
The informant began recording conversations he had with Sutherland, during which they discussed the plans for killing the man and transporting the body. In December, the informant told Sutherland, “I have a van I can rent for like $250 from a nun. We take him to a farm and let the hogs eat him.”
Sutherland told the informant that his then-girlfriend had different plans for the man, saying that she wanted him “strapped to a chair so she can hit him with a baseball bat.” However he also noted that “she would fold like an accordion” if she was ever questioned. Sutherland later expressed his desire to be less involved in the actual crime, telling the informant, “I don’t want to know anything about it,” but he would still like to see proof that his target was dead.
In another conversation recorded in January, the informant told Sutherland that he was going to need to be paid $250 for the van and $1,000 for the hog farmer. He also told Sutherland that he would burn the van after transporting the target’s body to the farm to destroy the evidence. He said that he would explain to the nun, “What happened? I don’t know what happened, Sister [redacted]. You know, you got insurance, don’t you?”
As the time to carry out the plot got closer, the FBI followed the informant as he cashed a check from Sutherland as a partial payment. An undercover agent also acted as a potential hog farmer who met with both the informant and Sutherland. As the hog farmer, the agent told Sutherland that he would require additional payment up front for the use of his farm. The informant and the agent agreed on a “good bottle of bourbon.”
Finally, on Jan. 26, around the time the intended target was set to be released from prison, Sutherland and the informant met for breakfast then went together to a bowling alley, where they were joined by Sutherland’s then girlfriend and her child. The informant told Sutherland that he needed to be paid before proceeding with the murder.
The pair left the bowling alley to go to the home of one of Sutherland’s relatives, where Sutherland gave the informant “an E-ZPass transponder, a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon for the hog farmer, and $1,450 cash” — $1,000 for the hog farmer, $250 to rent the van, and another $200 for gas.
Sutherland was taken into custody by the FBI on Jan. 27 without incident. No one was harmed.
During a hearing, Sutherland also admitted to leaving a dead Canadian goose on the doorstep at the home of his target’s mother. In the dead bird’s beak was a threatening note.
United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III said in the press release, “Jeal Sutherland hatched a vicious plot to kill a romantic rival and intimidate his victim’s family. When members of the FBI and my office learned of Sutherland’s plans, they acted quickly and did not rest until Sutherland was brought to justice.”
The release stated that Sutherland faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 22.
