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Teenager Tries To Hire Hitman Via Facebook 464

An anonymous reader writes "Hiring a hitman can cost a pretty penny these days. Why buy an ad in the classifieds section when you can simply use Facebook? Of course, you may end up having to face 11 to 22 years in prison, but that's worth the risk, right? That's what happened to 19-year-old Corey C. Adams of Pennsylvania. Last June, Adams' 20-year-old victim said after she left a party, he jumped into her car and raped her. She went to police. He went to Facebook. Specifically, his status update read: 'I got 500 on a girls head who wants that bread? Hit me up anyway possible.'"
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Teenager Tries To Hire Hitman Via Facebook

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  • by Toe, The ( 545098 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:04AM (#35221554)

    How many "likes" did his Facebook posts get?

    • by 228e2 ( 934443 )
      I wonder if liking the status could make you an accomplice.

      No, im serious . . . could it?
  • A Classic Story (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mattwrock ( 1630159 ) <mattwrock@gmail.com> on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:05AM (#35221568)
    Boy meetsgGirl, boy rapes girl, and tries to have her killed... Wait, I don't think I saw that on the Sopranos... What a douchebag!
  • What a shitbag... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:07AM (#35221596) Journal
    I wonder how much amusement his fellow inmates will have with the phrase "hit me up anyway possible"?
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      This is why I am a proponent of everybody studying martial arts. He raped her 'cause he's bigger and stronger. If you are going to go after someone who knows Judo or, god forbid, Silat, you're going to get hurt. You might WIN (if they don't study Pentjak Silat-- sorry but those people kill first, ask questions later), and rape them, but you are going to get hurt. If you intend to take this out too far, expect to have a lot of angry friends show up at your house to talk about the cast (or body); and that

      • Learning Martial Arts is prohibitively time consuming and still doesn't help you if you're surprised or inebriated in any way. You'd only get rid of a fraction of the rape cases at best.(As most rape cases are not assault cases against sober victims)

        • What would work better is something like a special diaphragm that ladies could wear with a poisonous needle. Not enough to poison to kill, just enough to incapacitate.
          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by Anonymous Coward

            They actually make that, though it's marketed to women in Africa where rape is much larger problem.

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-rape_device#Rape-aXe [wikipedia.org]

            • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

              by davester666 ( 731373 )

              Next on the market, a helmet, resembling a small motorcycle helmet complete with chin strap, for your second head...

          • Should work well against men with POOR IMPULSE CONTROL

        • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

          What does though is to reach up and grab ahold of an ear and simply pull down or foreward quickly. the human ear detaches from the head very easily.

          Your rapist will freak out pretty bad when you rip his fucking ears off. plus it makes identification easier.... "he is the one without ears."

          • by Zironic ( 1112127 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @01:07PM (#35223082)

            The problem would be that you don't know /how/ he would freak out, for all you know he might respond by beating you to death.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          Prohibitively time consuming like learning to bounce a ball off a wall, playing "baseball" or "soccer" with minimal rules, and otherwise just taking "Physical Education" classes that don't actually teach a sportsman game or anything but instead just keep the kids busy for a while as a form of recreation? Oh, wait, that's school.

          In my school, we spent an entire year where "phys ed" == "wrestling." I keep forgetting I have those moves in reserve if I need them; it just so happens that if I need to restra

          • Odds are that you'll never be in a real fight, and if you ever are, those wrestling skills won't in the end help very much because real fighting and practice are quite different.

            There's nothing wrong with practicing Martial Arts for recreational purposes or for fitness or whatever, but just like you probably won't end up a soccer champion just because you were taught soccer in Phys Ed you probably won't get much RL benefit from the MA classes either (beyond the exercise and fun).

            • Odds are that you'll never be in a real fight, and if you ever are, those wrestling skills won't in the end help very much because real fighting and practice are quite different.

              I dunno about that. I have a Judo background. I was punched in the nose. I then threw the person on the ground and quickly beat him into submission. I had a bloody nose and a black eye from the single punch he landed. He had a shattered hand (it flailed outward as he was thrown and landed on concrete) and a cracked rib.

              Just playing around I've made people submit who easily had six inches and fifty pounds on me. Now keep in mind, I'm just a green belt and almost everything I used was learned as a white belt.

        • by interkin3tic ( 1469267 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @12:47PM (#35222844)

          As most rape cases are not assault cases against sober victims

          If Jackie Chan has taught me anything, being drunk gives you UNSTOPPABLE kung fu powers.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        but then if _everybody_ knew martial arts, including the attacker, the benefit to the victim is completely lost
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by tverbeek ( 457094 )
          Next you'll be arguing that giving everybody firearms wouldn't solve everything, which is just... well, OK, it's true.
        • The OP mentioned, "You might WIN..., and rape them, but you are going to get hurt." Nothing kills an erection faster than a lacerated wrist or a broken arm. Well maybe one thing......
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Because only people with good intentions learn martial arts.

      • by niado ( 1650369 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @12:23PM (#35222508)

        This post (though raising some interesting points) highlights some common misconceptions about martial arts. Martial arts (and fighting in general) are not magical. Just because you have "studied" some martial arts - fighting styles, techniques, conditioning, whatever - does not mean you will be equipped to defend yourself in a real-life scenario. Martial arts training is especially weak in situations where the victim has an extreme disadvantage, and when life is on the line. Most martial arts (including Judo, mentioned above) are primarily only valid in sport situations, where ground rules are laid out and the combatants know (at least roughly) what the other person is capable of doing/allowed to do.

        If a 120 pound woman who has trained in some kind of standard martial arts (let's say jiu-jitsu and kickboxing) consistently for 10 years (a LONG TIME) is attacked by a 220 pound potential rapist who has no martial arts training outside of the occasional bar fight, my money is going on the rapist. Maybe she punches or kicks him in the face and leaves a bruise or knocks a few teeth out...and maybe he retaliates by beating her senseless with a few clumsy blows that she doesn't have the physical strength to block. Maybe she is able to break his arm, and maybe he retaliates by lifting her bodily and putting her head through a windshield. Maybe he catches her unawares and injures her so badly she is unable to put up any kind of effective defense. Maybe she is able to fight him off without being raped/killed/hospitalized, but I do not like her chances. Rapists are not known for fighting fair.

        This is not to say that martial arts training is not good or useful. Martial arts training can be used to build confidence, make people aware of potential violence, help people remain calm in violent situations, and sometimes give people the tools that they do need to actually defend themselves - but it is definitely not some magical rape-prevention tactic.

        • I teach my kids two things about a real attack. 1) If you cannot avoid a fight, incapacitate as quickly as possible. 2) There are NO RULES! Anything goes. This is best handled by either taking out a knee (something like 8 - 10 pounds of pressure on the front of the knee can break it) or kicking / hitting / grabbing a guy in the groin. I know in the real world that the attacker is not going to fight fair. Why should I expect myself, or my kids, to follow some code? The only way to even potentially avoi
      • No, this is not how it works in the real world, hate to break it to you. I had this argument w/ a female friend recently. I was trying to get her to own a gun (since she lives alone in a dubious neighborhood and is sort of clueless about watching her ass), but she claimed her dog and knowledge of martial arts was enough to handle any situation. So the last time she had her dog (which is about 90 lbs. or so) over at my place, even w/ advance warning (which someone wouldn't have in the real world), and me ho

        • and I've met very few people that have martial arts training that also have the proper attitude (that aren't ex-military or ex-cons; I'm both).

          I'm the opposite case. No martial arts training until recently, tiny guy, and fighting me has always been a losing battle. I've never actually believed anyone could beat me in a fight and whenever I got jumped in school (immature kids...), even if they're like twice my size or bigger, they lost. I mean I've been beaten... but I just didn't care; they hit me, they threw me into walls, and it never occurred to me that "oh shit, some huge fucking guy is kicking my ass!" The only thing that came to me is fi

        • The dog didn't think you were a threat, you dumb shit.

      • > This is why I am a proponent of everybody studying martial arts. He raped her 'cause he's bigger and stronger.

        Not that I disagree with you, but there are a few points to consider:

        1. How long have you -actually- studied MA for?

        Size MATTERS.

        Aikido uses the momentum of the attacker against the attacker, IF you are able to pull the move off. If not, all that extra weight (and Strength) is going to hurt.

        Not that knowing some Judo wouldn't hurt; I agree knowing SOME MA would help. The question is, can a p

  • Now I've never used Facebook, so maybe I'm missing something ... but status update? Are there many assassins scouring random Facebook profiles for job statuses, or did this guy hope one of his friends would do this?

    Wouldn't Twitter be better for this?

  • $500 is well below the going rate for killing the key witness in a felony trial. Maybe he would have gotten a more positive response if he hadn't been such a cheapskate.
    • $500 is well below the going rate for killing the key witness in a felony trial. Maybe he would have gotten a more positive response if he hadn't been such a cheapskate.

      I don't think there IS a positive response for this.

  • by BitHive ( 578094 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:09AM (#35221634) Homepage

    Because a rapist used Facebook, it's news for computer geeks? I'm actually kind of offended.

    • by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:21AM (#35221770) Homepage Journal

      Clearly it's just part of the plan to get more eyeballs on that ad.

      So do you need the 500 or not?!

      • Ad? What is this 'ad' you speak of?

        Hmmm ... maybe I need to disable AdBlock Plus so I can better understand these strange words.

        • I'm not sure if you deserve the *whoosh* or me because it's hard to tell if you're joking or not with just how much everyone has a raging hardon for adblock here that they have to tell everyone about, but the 'ad' he's talking about is the story's ad for a hitman in the form of a facebook status update.
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Slashdot idle! How many times must this be announced? If you don't want meaningless stories like this, don't go to idle!
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by BitHive ( 578094 )

        It was the top story on slashdot.org when I posted. But I'm sure that's my fault somehow, right?

    • It takes a village to raise an idiot, you know.

    • by killkillkill ( 884238 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:38AM (#35221968)
      Seriously. We only want to hear about rapists who release secret government documents... I mean alleged rapist... I mean a really nice guy who has no chance of actually being a rapist and was framed by [insert evil western government or corporation name here]. Wow. Almost pissed my karma away.
  • misleading headline (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jaymz2k4 ( 790806 ) <jaymz.jaymz@eu> on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:12AM (#35221662) Homepage
    The guy sounds a complete douche but I'm not so sure posting a status update could be considered the same thing as "tried to hire a hitman". It sounds more like the usual passive aggressive comments shared between friends without realising that the police will take it completely seriously and charge you with it. The lesson is, as is ever more clear each day, expect your social network trawled for evidence if you're ever in trouble and take heed of privacy settings. I wonder what would have been made of it had his status update been completely locked to friends only?
    • Normally it wouldn't, but the situation tends to change when you have an actual motive to kill someone.

      Friends only probably wouldn't help as it has started to become common to subpoena facebook for evidence.

    • by Jim Hall ( 2985 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:28AM (#35221874) Homepage

      TFA isn't that long, so I read it. The girl said she saw the posting, and told police that she feared for her life. The best bit is what happened next:

      At the preliminary hearing, West Chester Police Det. Stan Billie testified that he went to Adams’ home and that Adams agreed to meet with him at the police station. Less than 10 minutes later, Adams posted a second Facebook message that said he “needed this girl knocked off right now” Billie testified.

      So the guy is even more of a douche. Let's see, post vague message on FB for a hit job. When police ask you to come down to the station (not arrest you and take you to the station, but you agree to meet them there) you post a followup that you really need this girl dead.

      Yeah, dumb.

      • by mangu ( 126918 )

        Less than 10 minutes later, Adams posted a second Facebook message that said he âoeneeded this girl knocked off right nowâ Billie testified.

        Probably just a typo, he meant he "needed this girl knocked up", that's why he tried to rape her.

      • by Blindman ( 36862 )

        I'm not disputing that he is douche, but the posting right after he left the police station is just plain stupid. I assume the original posting came up during the interview, so it should have taken less than half of a second to realize that updating the death threat was a bad idea.

    • I suspect he will probably play the "it was a bad joke" defense. Its reasonable enough since a negotiation never took place, and money didn't actually exchange hands. That being the case, I am unaware of the law in that state, but it seems to me the police are making a bigger deal than necessary out of some dumb and douchey kid who obviously deserves time in prison for the rape if he is found not to be innocent. If anything this evidence should only be used as an indication he is not remorseful and the puni
    • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      "It sounds more like the usual passive aggressive comments shared between friends without realising that the police will take it completely seriously and charge you with it."

      No comments like that ALWAYS can do that . only the really really stupid, or brain-dead think otherwise. What complete losers talk like that to friends?

  • by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:17AM (#35221702)

    Did anyone notice that the pic of Emil Protalinski (the guy whose ZDNet article was linked in the OP) looks like it could be the mug shot of the criminal in question? Not a good pic...

  • Seriously? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sedated2000 ( 1716470 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:18AM (#35221710)
    Are people taking his post seriously because he is accused of raping the girl first? For this to have been legit he'd first need to have hitmen as friends on Facebook, and second he'd have to have pursued it. There are millions of people who say stupid things on Facebook that aren't taken in the same context. I have seen many more explicit posts on Facebook and not one was taken seriously by anyone.
    • by b0bby ( 201198 )

      No, more likely because after a cop visited him:

      Less than 10 minutes later, Adams posted a second Facebook message that said he “needed this girl knocked off right now”

      The first could be a joke, the second sounds like he's serious...

    • I'm doubting this was the only evidence... but also consider that he basically confessed to rape and "trying hiring a hitman" during the plea process.

    • by 517714 ( 762276 )
      And yet he entered a plea agreement on the charges. FTFA: "The only smart thing Adams did was sign a plea agreement last week for both the rape and solicitation to commit murder charges." That is a pretty strong indication that he was serious.
  • Specifically, his status update read: 'I got 500 on a girls head who wants that bread? Hit me up anyway possible.'"

    Big Horny Inmate, in the shower room, with the meat pipe?

  • now he can get his face on Mug shot

  • Would have probably been cheaper than a $500 hitman and would have had fewer legal entanglements than sexual assault.

  • A high school friend of mine got busted for drinking beer in his car, parked in a remote parking lot. His father knew a good lawyer. The trial lasted about five minutes. The lawyer presented the judge a copy of the law that my friend was charged with disobeying. The law stated that it was against drinking while driving. So the police officer obviously had made a mistake, and wrote down the wrong law when charging my friend. He told me later, "I got lucky!"

    So I would not be surprised if a good lawyer

  • by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:42AM (#35222028)
    This clearly called for Craigs List not Facebook.
  • by hduff ( 570443 ) <hoytduff@gmai l . com> on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @11:47AM (#35222078) Homepage Journal

    Maybe he just wanted to know if for $500 we would hit it?

    Then the charge is just pimping.

  • Kids these days, right?

    I've got a few friends of friends who like posting pictures of themselves with huge bags of weed, bottles of pills, and on a few occasions, face down over a couple of lines of powder with straws up their noses. The accompanying comments are the real gems though, tagging their dealers, friends, and then the obligatory comment about how fucked up they were.

    I want to say that these kids need to wise up and realize that what gets posted on the internet stays on the internet, but after som

  • Aren't you supposed to use Craig's List for this sort of thing anyway?
  • by davevr ( 29843 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @12:51PM (#35222904) Homepage
    IANAL, but I did run a Private Investigation firm. A lot of people are in jail because they didn't understand the law about this.

    If you exchange anything of value under the pretense of hiring a hitman, then you are guilty of consipiracy to commit murder. For all intents and purposes, the ability or even the intent of the person you "hire" is not relevant, nor is the amount of total value of the exchange. Just like robbing a bank with a gun counts even if the gun was fake/had no bullets/etc.

    Merely saying "I wish someone would kill " is a weaker version of "I will give someone $500 to kill " - solicitation. This is where you get into a slipperly slope of how much that resembles an agreement. For instance, if a 9 year says "I will give you a trillion dollars to kill ", that is not very credible. But if a mafia godfather with a track record of hiring killers and rewarding them merely says "Person is annoying me", that might be sufficient.

    The real trouble comes when you exchange something of value. I was working a case once where someone was in prison for conspiracy because they asked someone to kill their girlfriend. The "hitman" asked for $1500. The guy told him he was broke. The "hitman" said "yeah, I could do it for free but I would have to leave town." So the person gave him $15 for bus fare. That was enough to show a contract. It turned out his hitman was an undercover cop. Now the guy is serving 15 years.

    So in Facebook, if you said "I will be your neighbor in farmville if you kill her", and someone accepts that gift, that would be the same as you paying some stranger $10k.
  • by TheCarp ( 96830 ) <sjc@carpaYEATSnet.net minus poet> on Wednesday February 16, 2011 @02:17PM (#35223818) Homepage

    I have occasionally wondered what would happen if someone posted a message like that, then when contacted by a "hitman" (which is almost certainly sure to be the police) the person turned around, called the FBI and said "I was joking around online, but somebody contacted me, and I think this guy is serious! He says he has done this before too!"

    How much investigation do you think would go on before the local police and FBI realized that they were trying to sting each other?

    Not that I would actually recommend anyone doing that but, given how freely some people joke or blow off steam online, I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened without even being intentional.

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