Air National Guardsman held in Rent-a-Hitman inquiry

A U.S. reservist needed work. He thought he found it on fake Rent-A-Hitman site, feds say

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April 17, 2023 3:31 PM PT

In need of extra money, a Tennessee man submitted an inquiry to a website calling itself Rent-A-Hitman, according to federal authorities. His qualifications, the man said, included “military experience and rifle expertise,” skills that earned him the nickname “the Reaper.”

As it turned out, the “Reaper” was an Air National Guardsman and the website was a parody originally set up to advertise a cybersecurity company, prosecutors said in filing federal charges last week.

The guardsman, Josiah Ernesto Garcia, 21, of Hermitage, Tenn., was charged Thursday with the use of interstate facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

The Air National Guard did not immediately return requests for comment. Garcia was assigned a federal public defender, who could not be reached for comment.

According to the criminal complaint, Garcia needed money to support his growing family and was looking for contract mercenary jobs in February when he discovered www.rentahitman.com.

Garcia submitted an employment inquiry Feb. 16, noting his experience and asking for an “in depth job description,” investigators said. He continued to follow up, expressing his desire to work as soon as possible and sending identification documents and a resume that suggested he was an expert marksman employed in the Air National Guard since July 2021, according to the complaint.

In one follow-up email describing why he wanted the job, Garcia said he needed to “support my kid on the way” and was looking for well-paid work germane to his military experience, specifying “shooting and killing the marked target.”

“What can I say, I enjoy doing what I do, so if I can find a job that is similar to it, (such as this one) put me in coach!” Garcia wrote, according to the complaint.

“Garcia was stating his skillset matched the needs of a company that hires employees to commit murder,” the complaint said.

The Rent-A-Hitman website was set up in 2005. After the cybersecurity startup it was advertising failed, the site administrator turned it into a parody website complete with options to seek employment as a hired killer and false testimonials from people who claimed to have used the hitman service, according to the complaint. Over the next decade, authorities said, the site received queries about murder-for-hire work.

At the direction of the FBI, the website’s owner responded to Garcia, letting him know someone would be in touch. An undercover agent posing as a recruiter began communicating with Garcia in early April, prosecutors said.

In an initial phone call, Garcia allegedly asked the agent how soon he could start and what payments looked like. When asked whether he would be comfortable collecting body parts as trophies or torturing individuals, Garcia said, “If it’s possible and in my means to do so, I’m more than capable,” according to the complaint.

Garcia was arrested Wednesday after agreeing to kill an individual for $5,000, prosecutors said. According to the complaint, he met the undercover agent at a park in Hendersonville, Tenn., and was given a target packet with photographs and details about a fictional victim, and a down payment of $2,500.

He agreed to the terms of the job and asked the agent whether he needed to provide a photograph of the body, according to the complaint. He was subsequently arrested by the FBI, and a search of his home recovered an AR-style rifle.

If convicted, Garcia faces up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said.