A New York man was sentenced to seven years on Tuesday. He tried to hire a hit man to feed his girlfriend's ex to the pigs. A court convicted 58-year-old Jeal Sutherland for contracting a hog farmer for murder.
Sutherland offered $1,000 and a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon for the crime. Unfortunately for Sutherland and fortunately for the ex, the hog farmer was actually an undercover FBI agent. Someone accepting a $1,000 and a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon for murder should have probably tipped him off. But I digress.
"Jeal Sutherland thought he could order up the murder of his romantic rival right from his cell phone," John Sarcone, first assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of New York, said in a statement. "Thanks to the hard work of FBI Albany and members of my office, Sutherland will now be dialing out from a federal prison for the foreseeable future."
Pigs, Pigs, Pigs
In 2024, Sutherland reached out to the hit man about killing his girlfriend's ex. He wanted the hit man to dispose of the body by feeding it to the pigs on the farm. A year later, he ramped things up by threatening his rival's mom and leaving a dead Canada goose on her doorstep. By the end of January 2025, authorities arrested Sutherland.
That's when Sutherland discovered to his horror the hog farmer was a FBI agent. There would be no feeding of the pigs. Instead, Sutherland wound up in the pen himself, the federal pen. He pleaded guilty to using an interstate commerce facility in a murder-for-hire plot. The courts sentenced him to 7 1/4 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.
"The details of Mr. Sutherland's callous plans are deeply disturbing and prove he had every intention of ending a life," Craig Tremaroli, special agent in charge in FBI's Albany office, said in a statement. "Instead, his vicious and intricate plot has landed him in federal prison. This case clearly illustrates the FBI will work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to swiftly investigate and interrupt any individual looking to carry out such egregious acts of violence in our communities."
