MURDER-FOR-HIRE | 'Two slugs to the head, that's it. Real quick.'
John Johnson was so eager to have his ex-wife killed that he called a purported hitman from the DuPage County Jail, then offered specific instructions about how he wanted her killed, prosecutors said today.
"Two slugs to the head, that's it. Real quick," Johnson said in the July 1 phone call, according to a recording played today during his bail hearing.
"I just want that b---- dead. That's all I want." After hearing the tape, DuPage County Circuit Judge Peter Dockery ordered the 41-year-old Chicago man held without bail on the murder-solicitation charge filed earlier this week.
"He poses a real danger," Dockery said of Johnson, a former mortgage banker who smirked and laughed several times as the six-minute recording was played in court.
Adding an unusual restriction, Dockery also limited Johnson's phone calls from the jail, saying he could only call his defense attorney.
Johnson was in the jail for allegedly violating an order of protection obtained by his ex-wife following the 2007 divorce that ended their five-month marriage.
While jailed, Johnson tried to hire a hitman to kill his former wife, prosecutors said, but an informant tipped off sheriff's police, so Johnson was actually talking with an undercover detective during the recorded call.
Police later attempted to convince Johnson his wife had, in fact, been killed, showing him a phony picture of a woman who appeared to have been shot, a law enforcement source said.
Prosecutors said that, at one point during the call, Johnson offered to pay $3,000 to have his ex-wife gunned down ‹ double an earlier offer.
"Seeing the urgency of it, I was going to double the money," Johnson was heard saying on tape.
Asked by the detective if he was sure about having the woman killed, Johnson replied unequivocally: "That's what I want. I'm positive." Prosecutors cited Johnson's repeated comments about wanting to harm his former wife as a justification for keeping him jailed until he goes to trial.
"He is obsessed with exacting his revenge on her," prosecutor Demetri Demopoulos said.
His attorney argued Johnson wasn't serious when he made the alleged threats.
"This was a fantasy on Mr. Johnson's part, not the reality," said defense attorney Charles Lauer. "This is talk on the phone."
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