A Utah woman, identified as Krista Renae Stone, received a sentence of 78 months in federal prison for her involvement in a dark web murder-for-hire scheme intended to kill her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, according to U.S. Department of Justice in a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
As details from the case indicate starting from March 2023, Stone utilized the dark web with plans to hire someone for a murder and she was willing to pay $5,000 in Bitcoin for the deed and provided a photo and specific details about the intended victim, the 23-year-old from Salt Lake City pleaded guilty in May 2024 to using facilities of interstate commerce to commission a murder, and was then handed her sentence on Monday morning.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge David Sam, who presided over the case, was quoted as saying, "I am very troubled by this case," pointing out life was saved thanks to the meticulous efforts of law enforcement agencies involved in uncovering and thwarting the deadly plan. In response to the resolution of the case, U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins of the District of Utah emphasized, "Ms. Stone's murder-for-hire plot was a brazen attempt against another person's life that caused extreme emotional harm," as per the U.S. Department of Justice.
Homeland Security Investigations took charge of the investigation leading to Stone's arrest, during which Christopher Miller, Special Agent in Charge, commented on the gravity of the crime by noting that "Murder-for-hire turns the sanctity of life into a transaction, making our communities vulnerable to further acts of violence," underscoring the importance of law enforcement's role in preventing these types of crimes that treat human lives as commodities. Following her prison term, Stone will also face three years’ supervised release as per the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carol A. Dain of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah with the court and law enforcement expressing hopes that Stone's sentencing brings some level of closure to the victim and her family.
