John Michael Musbach (via Salem County (N.J.) Jail).
A man who admitted to trying to murder a victim of child sexual abuse in order to stop him from testifying at trial will spend at least six years in federal prison.
John Michael Musbach, 34, pleaded guilty in February to the plot to murder the teenage boy, with whom he had exchanged sexually explicit materials.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 78 months in prison, the Justice Department announced in a press release.
According to federal prosecutors, Musbach, of New Jersey, exchanged sexually explicit photographs and videos over the internet with the victim, then a 13-year-old living in New York, during the summer of 2015. The victim’s parents discovered the exchanges and called the police.
Musbach was eventually arrested in March 2016. In May of that year, prosecutors say, he apparently decided to have the victim killed so that he couldn’t testify against him in the pending criminal case. From May 7 through May 20, 2016, Musbach “repeatedly communicated with the administrator of a murder-for-hire website, which operated on the dark net, and which purported to offer contract killings or other acts of violence in return for payment in cryptocurrency, and arranged for a murder-for-hire,” the Justice Department said in the press release.
Musbach asked the contract killer if the intended victim, then 14, was “too young to target.” Upon hearing that the child’s age wouldn’t stop the murder-for-hire, Musbach paid approximately 40 Bitcoin — worth around $20,000 — for the hit.
The defendant repeatedly messaged the website’s administrator following up on the hit and asking when it would occur, but balked when asked to provide additional funds.
“When pressed for an additional $5,000 to secure the hit, Musbach eventually sought to cancel and asked for a refund of his $20,000,” the Justice Department statement says. “The website’s administrator then revealed that the website was a scam and threatened to reveal Musbach’s information to law enforcement.”
The sentence, issued by Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez, a Ronald Reagan appointee, includes three years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine. The plea agreement had contemplated a sentence range of five to eight years.
Law&Crime’s Elura Nanos contributed to this report.
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