Woman and her incarcerated boyfriend conspired to murder informant, say authorities

A Pennsylvania woman allegedly hatched a plan with her boyfriend to kill the police informant who he thought helped put him in jail. And now the woman is behind bars right alongside her lover.

Amanda Lynne Zortman, 45, stands accused of criminal solicitation of murder in the first degree, conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility, court records show. She remains at the Centre County Correctional Facility without bond. A criminal complaint obtained by Altoona CBS affiliate WTAJ said Zortman spoke several times with her boyfriend, 63-year-old Mark Hackett, who had been in jail on drug-related charges.

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Hackett felt as if he had been set up by a police informant and believed he had identified the person. Zortman and Hackett spoke several times about “dealing” with the informant, the complaint reportedly said. Hackett allegedly told his girlfriend that he had a “solution to our problem.”

The plan, cops said, was to give the so-called informant a “hotshot,” which is an illicit narcotic spiked with fentanyl. Zortman also had been speaking with a “hitman” Hackett had met in jail, the affidavit reportedly said. He was allegedly willing to pay $10,000 to carry out the hit. Zortman also reportedly said she would buy the “hitman” a pound of methamphetamine plus cash to bail him out of jail.

Hackett said once the informant was dead, he would be freed, the affidavit reportedly said. But the plan hit a snag when the “hitman” said the couple would also have to pay his bail in another county. After his release from jail, the man had to go to a halfway house or rehab facility. Once the stint was completed, Zortman would take him to deliver the “hotshot” to the informant, the affidavit reportedly said.

Troopers alleged Zortman took “substantial steps to plan and facilitate the murder,” the affidavit said, per StateCollege.com. Cops reportedly spoke with the informant who said someone had broken into his home a few days after he moved out, making him think someone was trying to kill him.

Zortman has a court date scheduled for March 12.

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