A Colonie man who plotted to kill a romantic rival and have the body disposed of by pigs has been sentenced to federal prison. Jeal Sutherland, 58, received 87 months in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to attempting to hire someone for the murder. The judge also imposed a $15,000 fine and three years of supervised release following his prison term. According to prosecutors, the late-2024 plot—intercepted before anyone was harmed—involved cellphone communications, a dead Canada goose left as a warning, and Sutherland’s mistaken belief that a hog farmer he contacted was real, when in fact it was an undercover FBI agent.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Mae A. D'Agostino imposed the 87 month term after finding that Sutherland used his cellphone between November 2024 and January 2025 to arrange the killing. "Jeal Sutherland thought he could order up the murder of his romantic rival right from his cell phone," First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone said in the release, crediting FBI Albany and federal prosecutors with cutting the plan short. The office said Sutherland agreed to pay an undercover agent, whom he believed was a hog farmer, for use of a Pennsylvania farm where pigs would consume the victim’s body.
Local context and the informant
Local reporting portrays Sutherland as a Colonie resident active in youth baseball and in solar panel sales, and says the case turned on a confidential informant who had previously acted as Sutherland’s enforcer, according to the Times Union. The paper reports that the informant is a convicted murderer on lifetime parole who cooperated with federal investigators, and that prosecutors say Sutherland once hired another man to leave a dead Canada goose with a threatening note on the intended victim’s mother's doorstep. Sutherland’s attorney told reporters his client acted out of fear for his partner and child, but prosecutors described the scheme as "vicious" and carefully planned.
How prosecutors say the plan would have worked
A May 14, 2025 plea announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York outlines what prosecutors say was an elaborate setup. The plan, according to court documents, was to pick up the intended victim after his release from prison, offer him a job, have the informant carry out the killing, then take the body to a Pennsylvania hog farm. Prosecutors say Sutherland arranged for a van to be rented, reportedly for $250 from a nun, and agreed to forgive a debt and pay what he believed was a hog farmer $1,000 plus a "good bottle of bourbon" for the grisly disposal. FBI Albany agents arrested Sutherland on Jan. 27, 2025, before any violence occurred.
Legal note
Sutherland pleaded guilty to using an interstate commerce facility in a murder for hire scheme, a federal charge that carries up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release, as reported by CBS News. In the end, the judge imposed an 87 month term and a $15,000 fine, and prosecutors credited the FBI’s Capital District Safe Streets Gang Task Force and the Colonie Police Department with interrupting the plot and preventing harm.
The intended victim was never attacked, and Sutherland has remained in custody since his Jan. 27, 2025 arrest. The case has drawn wide attention in the Capital Region, both for its alleged pig farm disposal plan and for how undercover work by federal agents brought a bizarre murder for hire scheme to a halt before anyone was hurt.
