Accused Pedophile In Jail Reportedly Wanted To Hire Hitman To Take Out 12-Year-Old Victim Before Trial

A Florida man accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl allegedly wanted her killed before his trial date. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Richard Palmer purportedly asked a cellmate for assistance with the crime, offering a sports car and $15,000 as payment to any willing participant. According to the court affidavit, the girl, who was 7 at the time, claims that she woke up to find Palmer in her bed with his hands in her underwear.

The 26-year-old has been in custody since last September after being accused of resisting arrest and beating up a law enforcement officer. His pending molestation charge was the reason why he was refused bail. Palmer had confided in his cellmate about not wanting to spend the rest of his life in prison and wanted to know if he knew anybody who could do a job for him on the outside.

The job was to kill the 12-year-old girl as well as her mother and aunt, who were both in the house when the incident occurred in 2013. The 26-year-old insisted that he did not want the trio to appear in court and testify against him. Richard Palmer also wanted the potential killer to destroy any incriminating evidence by burning the house down.

The cellmate informed law enforcement officers about what Palmer was planning and even gave them the hand-drawn map of the victim’s home. The highly descriptive map included landmarks on how to get to the victim’s house and the interior layout of the residence.

An undercover investigator posing as the assassin spoke to Palmer who promised $100 and the sports car as upfront payment. Detectives on the sting operation also recorded a conversation between Palmer and his cellmate in which he used the coded phrase, “exterminate all Jews,” a supposed reference to the killing of his alleged victim and the two witnesses.

With the additional charges of arson and solicitation to commit murder, it is now likely that Richard Palmer will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in a statement to The Ledger disclosed that the 26-year-old had shown no remorse for his initial crimes by still wanting to commit murder while in jail.

“Just when you think this man can’t get lower, after being arrested for doing horrible things to a child, now he’s trying to hire someone to kill her and the witnesses. This guy needs to be in prison for the rest of his life because he’s very dangerous and we’re going to do our best to put him there.”

Last year, Charles Nevels III attempted to kill witnesses penciled to testify at his cousin’s trial by setting fire to their home. According to a CBS Pittsburgh report, Nevels set fire to the house using toilet paper, forcing the witnesses to leap from the second story building. William Clarett was in custody for a 2015 murder when he approached a fellow inmate to help him find a hitman. The inmate turned him over to authorities, St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting.