Crime Time

Teen gets 20 years for trying to hire hit man to kill girl, 15

A Houston area teenager has been sentenced for 20 years in prison for soliciting a hit man to kill a 15-year-old girl who he thought was preventing him from getting back together with his ex-girlfriend.

The 17-year-old boy offered an undercover police officer $150 and $15 worth of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax to pull the hit off, the Houston Chronicle reported.

-- Lance Murray

Woman accused of ice-pick-for-hire killing of hubby's pregnant mistress

The plot: A man's pregnant mistress, a jealous wife, and an assassin with an ice pick.

Sheriff's officials in Washington state say those are the players in a real life homicide in which a 33-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder and manslaughter in connection with the ice-pick slaying of a 25-year-old woman who they said was having an affair with the woman's husband.

Lacy K. Hirst-Pavek is accused of paying $500 to have the "other woman" killed, authorities said.

-- Lance Murray

Woman tried to find a hit man on Craigslist, FBI says

Wanted: One hit man.

Federal investigators say that's the type of Craigslist ads a Michigan woman placed.

Ann Marie Linscott, 49, is under arrest for contacting several people through the online classified site, Craigslist.org in an effort to have a California woman killed. Twice, the feds say, she offered $5,000 to "eradicate" an Oroville, Calif, woman.

Authorities say that Linscott was having an online affair with the California woman's husband.

You can read more about this case at Sacramento TV station KCRA here. And you can watch the AP video report here.

-- Lance Murray

Teen accused of plotting a hit on his parents

No Playstation. No television. That was the punishment a Maryland teen received from his parents for his bad behavior and poor grades. The teen had a long history of behavior problems, officials said.

But imagine being called at home in the middle of the night and being told by police that your son was under arrest for plotting your murder.

Today, Cory Ryder, 16, goes on trial in a Maryland courtroom, charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill his mother and stepfather. They said that during a clandestine meeting at a hotel, Ryder offered an undercover police officer, who was posing as a hitman, his stepfather's new pickup truck as payment for the killings.

-- Lance Murray