A New York man planned a murder-for-hire plot against his romantic rival and wanted to feed his remains to pigs. Jeal Sutherland paid a man to murder his romantic rival, the father of his ex-girlfriend's child, and then fed the man's body to hogs, authorities said.
The 57-year-old entered a guilty plea on May 14 to using a federal commerce facility in a murder-for-hire plot, which carries a maximum term of 10 years, according to a Justice Department statement.
He reportedly planned the murder between November 2024 and January 2025 in exchange for letting go of a debt on the individual he hired to murder his victim.
Sutherland also consented to compensate an FBI undercover agent, whom he thought was a hog farmer, for the use of a farm in Pennsylvania to have the victim's remains consumed by farm pigs.
The 57-year-old also admitted that he had another man place a dead Canada goose with a threatening message in its beak on his victim's mother's doorstep in the weeks before the intended murder.
But the potential hit men and the farmer turned out to be FBI informants. Thus, the FBI thwarted Sutherland's murder plot by posing an undercover agent as a hog farmer in Pennsylvania.
On January 27, Sutherland was taken into custody, and his intended victim was not harmed.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig L Tremaroli stated that Sutherland's evil scheme was to "violently end a man's life and intimidate his family."
"That plan never materialised because of the prompt actions taken by FBI Albany and our law enforcement partners," he added.
Sutherland's lawyer claimed his client was attempting to protect his loved one and had good intentions, NBC reported.
According to a criminal complaint from Law and Crime, Sutherland had previously mistreated the mother of his romantic rival. He reportedly bribed a man to burn her car to prevent her from testifying at a custody hearing.
That man, too, served as an informant for the FBI in the case. United States District Judge Mae A. D'Agostino will pronounce the quantum of punishment on September 22. 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, according to the Justice Department.
