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A 25-year old Beverly Hills man faces 10 years in federal prison after admitting he solicited and paid a hitman on the dark web to kill a woman he barely dated.
According to CBS News, Scott Quinn Berkett pleaded guilty to one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder for hire. Berkett met the unidentified woman online in 2020. She found Berkett's behavior to be "sexually aggressive" and tried several times to break off the relationship. In April of 2021, a family member called and sent text messages to Berkett's father after learning he kept trying to contact the woman. Federal officials say Berkett appears to have responded by saying "consider this matter closed."
In his plea agreement, Berkett admitted to soliciting and paying for murder-for-hire services on a darknet website claiming to offer such services, soon after being contacted by the woman's family. Berkett gave details about the woman and directions to her and sent $13,000 in bitcoin to the group.
An undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman contacted him in May, and Berkett confirmed the pictures that the officer sent were of the woman and that he made bitcoin payments to have her murdered. Prosecutors say Berkett also sent another $1,000 to the undercover officer via Western Union and requested proof of her murder when it was finished.
He is now scheduled to be sentenced on Sept 12, when he faces statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.