Collinsville Woman Receives 10-Year Sentence for Murder-for-Hire Scheme
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 18, 2011 |
A Collinsville woman was sentenced on November 18, 2011, in federal district court in East St. Louis, and received a 10-year sentence for using a facility of interstate commerce in furtherance of a murder for hire scheme, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today.
On December 16, 2010, a cooperating witness contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and reported that Christina Lynn Keck, age 32, who briefly resided in Collinsville, Illinois, and who formerly resided in Texas, had asked him over the course of several months if he would help her find someone to kill her ex-boyfriend, who resided in Texas. On December 17, 2010, the cooperating witness met with FBI agents and placed a recorded telephone call to Keck. During this telephone call, Keck continued to say she wanted her ex-boyfriend “gone.” During the conversation Keck said if the ex-boyfriend was dead, “that’s fine with me.” Keck agreed that the cooperating witness could give her phone number to his associate, “Terry.”
On December 20, 2010, an officer of the Illinois State Police, acting in an undercover capacity, and posing as “Terry,” called Keck’s cellular phone and arranged to meet her. Later that day, Keck met with the undercover agent and paid him $600 to murder her ex-boyfriend, providing him with written directions to his home and place of employment and physical descriptions. The undercover agent told Keck, “I’m planning on staging a robbery and during the robbery, I’ll ransack the place and I will shoot and kill him.” Keck nodded and said “ok.” When asked by the undercover agent if she was “certain this is how you want to do it?” Keck replied, “I want him gone.” Shortly thereafter, Keck was arrested and taken into custody.
Keck has been in custody since her arrest on December 20, 2010. Following release from imprisonment, Keck will serve a three-year term of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Illinois State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Suzanne M. Garrison.