Cook County Jail Detainee Planned To Hire Hitman: Sheriff

COOK COUNTY, IL – A Cook County jail detainee has been charged with several counts of soicitation of murder and solicitation of murder for hire as the result of an undercover investigation, the Cook County Sheriff Office said. Investigators discovered in early January that 32-year-old detainee Justin Smith, of Chicago, was trying to find a hitman to hire to kill three witnesses in his current murder case, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced Thursday.

According to the sheriff's office, Smith met with jail visitor who he thought was a hitman and offered to pay them $5,000 to kill the witnesses, but the person was actually an undercover sheriff’s officer.

Smith, who has been in custody for more than a year, was arrested Wednesday following the undercover investigation, and charged with three counts of solicitation of murder and three counts of solicitation of murder for hire, the sheriff's office said. He was denied bond Thursday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building on this new case, the sheriff's office adds.

Photo of Smith provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office