A Knoxville woman has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for her role in an unsuccessful murder-for-hire scheme targeting a Prattville woman.
Melody Sasser, 48, was sentenced to 100 months by U.S. District Thomas A. Varlan, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, said Rochelle Barnes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Following her imprisonment, Sasser will be on supervised release for three years. There is no parole in the federal prison system. In addition to the prison sentence, Sasser was also ordered to pay over $5,389.31 in restitution to the victim in the case.
Sasser Sought Hitman on Website Called 'Online Killers Market,' Paid $10K in Cryptocurrency
In 2023, Homeland Security was contacted by a foreign law enforcement agency about a possible murder-for-hire plot involving a Prattville resident, Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson said on Wednesday. The target of the plot was the wife of a man Sasser had met on an online dating site and was previously romantically involved with, he said.
According to filed court documents, Sasser admitted to using a dark web-hosted site known as the Online Killers Market for the purpose of hiring a hitman to carry out the hit.
She paid nearly $10,000 in cryptocurrency to carry out the murder and later persisted in learning how the plot was going to the people she thought would carry it out. However, it turned out to be fraudsters who reported her to law enforcement instead.
As part of a plea agreement filed with the court, Sasser pled guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Sasser Previously Threatened, Stalked the Intended Target
As reported by WBIR, Starting in September 2022, Sasser started targeted the same woman who'd been seeing and then wed a man that Sasser formerly had been seeing. They'd hiked together, among other activities before he told her their relationship was off.
Sasser made threatening phone calls, disguising her voice, to the victim. She also drove to Alabama where the woman lived. She vandalized the woman's vehicle, an investigation showed.
Government prosecutor Anne-Marie Svolto Sasser's crime wasn't a one-off attempt to do harm. Rather, she worked for months figuring out ways to harass and harm the woman. Sasser also kept a journal that authorities ultimately found detailing her plans to kill the woman, Svolto said.
